A Witch's Quest of Mount Doom
by Eruanna3594
Summary: The Second Wizarding War had just finished, and Hermione was dragged to another world, namely Middle Earth, and another war. Why her? There will be references to at least one other fantasy story but it will only be mentioned briefly.
1. Chapter 1 The Secret Ancestry

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, their dialogues, and their characters. They belong to their respective owners. So on with the story!

* * *

Chapter 1: The Secret Ancestry

The battle of Hogwarts had just come to an end, and Hermione somehow felt only slightly relieved. Now that everything had ended, shouldn't she be happy? But she wasn't feeling like she wanted to do celebration with the others. Instead, she felt hollow inside. She had spent most of her life in the past years to help Harry in his adventures. Now that everything was over and Harry's final adventure was finished, she didn't exactly know what to do in her life. She felt purposeless. She wandered around the castle of Hogwarts and ended up in the Gryffindor common room. There, she sat and contemplated on anything that came to her mind.

She suddenly remembered a letter that suddenly appeared on her bed the night Dumbledore died. She hadn't read the letter yet. She actually wanted to read it right after her hand touched the letter, but the grief of Dumbledore's death was too deep and she was too "occupied" with her cry. She kept the letter in her bag and the letter just slipped out of her mind. Until now.

She ransacked her bag and after ten minutes of search, she finally found the letter. She carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the paper inside it.

_Dear Ms. Hermione Jean Granger, _it said. She recognised the writing as Dumbledore's. A slight tear almost appeared in her eyes upon reading those words. It had been a long time since the last time she saw his handwriting.

_I am aware that by the moment you read this letter, I am no longer living in this world. I wrote this letter to you to reveal a secret about your ancestry._

... and so she read on, and on...

* * *

Gandalf was sitting alone, smoking on a balcony in Rivendell. Just an hour ago, Aragorn, Sam, Merry, and Pippin set their feet on the land of Imladris and almost rushed into the room where Frodo was being tended by Lord Elrond. Gandalf's mind travelled from Orthanc in Isengard to Barad-dûr in Mordor. Now that there was an alliance between Saruman and Sauron, the chance for them to win this war is getting thinner. He knows a meeting was about to be held in a near time, but he was afraid of the outcome of the meeting. A quest to destroy the One Ring was certain. But the big problem, the one thing that had been bothering his mind, was: Who would do this quest? And if the quest failed, what would happen?

Gandalf then remembered a friend of his. This friend had helped Bilbo, the Dwarfs, and himself when they were travelling to the Lonely Mountain. Merlin. He was so young when Gandalf first met him during his quest with Bilbo. He couldn't forget the expressions on Bilbo and the Dwarfs' faces when they witnessed a nineteen-year-old boy fell from the sky and then tried to defend his own self with a wooden stick, which turned out to be magical. He also remembered the night when Merlin was about to leave Middle Earth, back to a place he called Camelot.

_Gandalf was sitting in the library in Rivendell, someday in T.A. 2953. He was not actually there to read books. He was just seeking for some rest. He had just come back from the last White Council meeting. He finished a book and was putting the book back to its shelf when suddenly he heard a thud behind him. He turned around to find his friend, Merlin, now thirty one years old, there with his baby son in his arm. His eyes were rolling wildly when he made sure that nobody was listening. He started speaking when he was sure that there was nobody around._

"_Gandalf, they attacked my house, Gandalf. My house! And they killed her!" It was obvious in his voice that he was in real hurry, and in deep grief. Gandalf couldn't comprehend who had attacked his house, but he didn't need to ask him who those people killed. Merlin had just lost his wife._

"_Who attacked you, my friend? Tell me,"_

"_The wraiths. Sauron is getting stronger again, my friend. His servants are now gathering, and he is secretly eliminating his enemies one by one. I must leave now. I must leave back to Camelot. I can risk myself into danger, but my son? I will not let him be in danger. I will take him with me. There, where no one knows about him, I can protect him better. I do not care if I have to tell people there that he was not my son, but I will make sure no one will hunt him just because he is my son. He will be safe. I will see to it." Merlin said, his voice sounded resolute._

"_If that is you decision, my friend, I shall do nothing to stop you. But if something happen, and your presence is direly needed again in this place, what should I do?" Gandalf asked._

_Merlin sighed at Gandalf's question. "I already know you would ask me about that. I'm afraid I will not be coming back. This place reminds me of her. I can't bear looking upon this land again. The pain is too... too overwhelming. But take this horn. The sound of this horn will get past time and space. If such condition happens, blow this horn, and one of my heirs, one of my strongest and truest heirs, will come to aid, I promise you." Merlin then handed Gandalf a horn, coloured green and silver, but covered in red and gold fabric. (The colours of the horn are chosen because Merlin's a Slytherin, but about the red and gold fabric, there will be another story to explain that.)_

"_Thank you, my friend, for all you have done for Middle Earth," Gandalf said as he took the horn from Merlin's hand. He gave Merlin a smile, and for the first time since Merlin appeared in Elrond's library that day, Merlin smiled, and the worry in his eyes lessened._

"_This place have given me Idhrenniel, and there is nothing I can give Middle Earth that can make us even," Merlin made to leave the place, but then he looked back at Gandalf again. "Gandalf, I trust you to keep the secret of my involvement in our last quest with our dear Bilbo. Should I ever change my mind, and return to this place with my son, I still want to live a peaceful, quest-free life. I don't think I would ever have that if the story of my involvement was spread," Merlin said with a smile, and then he winked his right eye. Now his voice sounded a little more relieved. Gandalf didn't know if he was just joking or not, but he wouldn't risk betraying his friend's trust, should he be serious._

"_Then I will keep it a secret, and I will tell no one, except if it is really necessary," Gandalf said with a reassuring smile. Merlin smiled wider, and disappeared into thin air._

Gandalf stopped smoking and took out Merlin's horn from his robe. His frown disappeared from his face. _Merlin, my friend, I think the time when you are direly needed has finally come_. He hesitated for a moment before he blew the horn. There was no sound heard from the horn. He almost thought it was useless, but then he remembered that Merlin was not the kind of person who would break his promise. So now, he waited.

A few minutes later, he heard a woman's scream from below the balcony where he was smoking.

* * *

Hermione pondered over what was written in the letter. Her? The long-lost heiress of Merlin, the great sorcerer of the old time? This was definitely not what she expected when she read the letter.

She had just found out that Voldemort, about a year before the prophecy about Harry was made, had been doing some research to seek the long-lost heir of Merlin, for he was afraid that Merlin's heir could defeat him. Dumbledore thought that if he or she indeed existed, that heir must not be found by Voldemort. He also thought that this heir might be able to finish Voldemort, and thus he or she must be protected. When Harry's fate was prophesied, Voldemort stopped his search, thinking that whoever Merlin's heir is, he or she wouldn't finish Voldemort, because Voldemort believed that Harry would be the one destined to do it.

Although Voldemort stopped his search, Dumbledore didn't. Dumbledore thought that this heir might be able to assist Harry. So he went on with his search while keeping an eye on Harry. And he finally found him, Hermione's father. But Hermione's father, much to Dumbledore's surprise, didn't have magical powers. He, instead, had been living in the muggle world, and he even believed that he was just an ordinary muggle. Dumbledore theorised, that maybe the magical power in the family line had been dormant for so long, and finally, Merlin's descendants forgot about their lineage, and lived among muggles. And so Dumbledore stopped his search.

Years passed by and it's finally time for Dumbledore to admit Harry into Hogwarts. But he was surprised when he found Hermione Granger's name among the names of the to-be-students. The magic in the family had reawaken. Dumbledore decided to keep Hermione's ancestry a secret, leaving people believed that she was a Muggle-born. If people found out that she was Merlin's descendant, Voldemort's Death Eaters would hunt her down. When Voldemort returned, Dumbledore wrote the letter so when he died, Hermione would be informed about her ancestry.

For Hermione, this is a big shock. For years, she had been treated as a Mudblood, as they called her, but it turned out she was actually not one. Moreover, she was the heir of Merlin! She rose from the sofa, grabbed her magically enhanced bag, checked that her wand was still in place, and made to leave the empty common room to find his friends, Harry and Ron. But just as the common room's door opened, she heard a faint voice of a musical instrument. What instrument was that? It sounded like a horn. She decided to ignore the horn and stepped forward, getting out of the common room, but somehow, she just fell down into the floor. It was just as if there was a hole in the floor and she fell through it. She screamed and then felt something hard "embraced" her back as she touched the ground.


	2. Chapter 2 From a War to Another War

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, their dialogues, and their characters. They belong to their respective owners. So on with the story!

* * *

Chapter 2: From a war to another war

Hermione lied on the ground for a moment. She didn't feel any cracked bones in her. She then groaned as she tried to get up. She knew she shouldn't be complaining and should start thanking the Man Upstairs, for she had fallen from quite a height and survived without any bones cracked, but the pain from hitting the ground was still a pain. She rubbed her back for a moment and look around in awe. _Is this place Heaven? Am I dead?_

Hermione looked at the castle in front of her. Hogwarts was an amazing sight, but compared to this castle, Hogwarts was just a sandcastle. She was still admiring the castle when some people came around and stopped about a few metres away from Hermione. One of the people was a young woman with dark, wavy, flowing hair in a royal ancient dress. Not Greek kind of ancient, but more like fairytale ancient. She was one of the most beautiful women Hermione had ever since. Even if someone dressed her as a beggar, Hermione was sure that this woman would still look more beautiful than any princesses she had ever seen.

A man that looked like in his forties with dark, silver streaked, shoulder length hair and another man with dark, long hair who looked like a royal ruler stood in front of the young woman protectively, as if Hermione was a threat to the woman. The man with dark, silver-streaked hair even drew his sword. Instinctively, as the man drew his sword, Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed it toward the man.

Another man then came forward a few steps. He was a grey old man with long grey hair, long grey beard, long grey robe, and well... grey hat. Hermione noticed the resemblance between the old man and her late headmaster, but she didn't put down her wand arm. The old man could be as dangerous as her late headmaster for all she knew. Hermione shivered slightly upon the thought of an evil version of Dumbledore. It would be a fate worse than Voldemort for the Wizarding World.

The people in front of her share a few glances among themselves, as if they were having some contemplative debate about Hermione. The woman and the two younger men looked at the old man as the old man nodded and winked his eyes on them, and then they looked at each other. The woman looked at the man questioningly, as if saying, "What is he doing?", and the man with dark, silver-streaked hair shrugged, as if saying, "Who the hell knows?" Then they looked at the old man again, who were now walking towards Hermione. Hermione then pointed her wand at the old man with a dangerous expression on her face, prompting the old man to stop.

"Are you alright, child?" asked the old man with pure concern on his face.

Hermione put down her wand arm, but she didn't let her guard down. She kept her wand in her hand. She then rubbed his back and winced a little when she felt her fingers pressed on some bruises. But despite the bruises, she replied, "Yeah."

"How did you get here without alarming the guards on the borders?" asked the man who looked like a royal ruler.

"I don't know... I thought heard some horn... And then I thought... Oh, Merlin!" What Hermione intended to be an answer ended up as a train of mumbled questions, ended by an exclamation of confusion.

* * *

When Gandalf heard the girl exclaimed his friend's name, he couldn't help himself to ask, "Do you know Merlin?" His face was hopeful. There was no other way to explain the expression on his face. If the girl came from the same place as Merlin, she could be the heir, or heiress, that Merlin was talking about. His expression then brightened even more when the girl answered, "Yes, I know him, but not personally." Her expression this time was exactly the opposite of Gandalf's. Her expression showed suspicion toward Gandalf. "How do you know him? I take from the way you said your last question, not many people here know him."

Gandalf smiled. "He was an old friend of mine." His statement seemed to make the girl really interested. Her eyes widened as she asked, "You personally met him? How?" Gandalf answered, "We crossed path about sixty or seventy years ago during a quest. He was a good young wizard at the time."

The girl's eyes almost popped out of their sockets. "But that's impossible!" She exclaimed. "It must have been a millennium since his time. Unless..." She then switched into thinking mode. "Where am I?" she asked, looking towards the people in front of her.

"You are in Rivendell, the Last Homely House of the Elves, home of the Lord Elrond, my father," answered Arwen, while she gestured Elrond. The girl seemed unsatisfied by her answer. "Yes, but where is Rivendell?" she asked.

Gandalf then looked at the girl that he suspected was Merlin's heiress more thoroughly. She was wearing outlandish clothes and was covered in dirt. There were also some specks of blood on her clothes. "Lord Elrond, I believe she needs some time and room to clean up and rest, while I have some explaining to do to you."

Lord Elrond looked a little bit hesitant to fulfill Gandalf's request, but he appeared to trust Gandalf enough to ask Arwen accompany the girl into an unoccupied room in his house.

* * *

Hermione looked around the room Arwen ushered her into. Arwen was a nice woman. When she took Hermione to this room, Arwen introduced herself and his father to Hermione and asked her if she was okay. It turned out Hermione's scream could be heard all over this place.

_I need to bathe_, thought Hermione.

She searched the room for any towel, but she didn't find any, so she just walked into the bathroom in her room and found the towel was already there. She took a nice bath and just when she finished dressing up and went back to her bedroom, there was a knock on the door.

She opened up the door and looked at the old man that looked so much like Professor Dumbledore. The old man smiled at her and she took him to a chair in her room while she sat on the bed.

"So I take it you are Merlin's heiress?" asked the old man. Hermione gasped when the old man asked her that. Yes, she did say that she knew Merlin, albeit not personally, but she was pretty sure she didn't tell him she was his heiress.

"How do you know that?" Instead of answering the question the old man asked, Hermione threw another question at him.

The old man chuckled a little. It seemed he took Hermione's question as a 'yes'. "It was simple. I blew a horn to call for Merlin's heir, and you suddenly appeared out of nowhere."

The old man paused, giving Hermione some room to show her reaction. "You called for me?" she asked.

"Not you in particular. Merlin didn't exactly say which one of his heir he would send. He just said one of the strongest and truest of his heirs, which is why I was a little bit surprised when he sent you. I didn't think that what he meant by heirs included heiresses too," answered the old man.

Hermione couldn't say anything. What the old man had said, combined with the fact that it was her that was sent here, had just proven that she was one of the strongest and truest heirs of Merlin. She was also still a little shocked when she was suddenly sent somewhere else right after the Battle of Hogwarts ended, so all she said was, "Oh."

"Don't you want to know why I called you here?" asked Gandalf as he smiled.

"Of course I want to," Hermione said quickly.

The old man then told her about the day Merlin left Middle Earth. He sometimes addressed himself as Gandalf in the story, and that's how she found out that his name was Gandalf. There was one part of the story that bothered Hermione. Merlin told Gandalf to blow the horn when Merlin's presence is direly needed. That means, Merlin's presence is now needed, and definitely not for fun.

"Does that mean Merlin's presence is now needed?" asked Hermione.

"Yes," replied Gandalf. "Evil now stirs in the east, and war is coming. A lot of help will be needed..."

"A war?" Hermione cut in. "Great. A war has just ended back home, and now, I'm suddenly here for another war."

"Will you not help us?" Gandalf frowned a little, as Hermione showed her reluctance to participate in this war.

"Now that I'm here, what choice do I have? I don't know my way back home," answered Hermione. She was upset, but then she thought that if she was in his position, maybe she would do the same thing, calling help from wherever she could think of. That dissipated her upset.

Gandalf smiled in relief as she said that. He seemed happy that Hermione would help. "Good. But I must warn you, to help in this war means you must fight battles. Men here do not really agree with women fighting battles. You have to present yourself well in the upcoming meeting."

"What meeting?" asked Hermione.

"A meeting will be held in a short time, and people from distant lands are coming here to discuss the action that will be taken against Sauron, the Dark Lord. Your presence there will be expected," explained Gandalf. Hermione frowned a little when she heard the words 'Dark Lord'. Those words reminded her of Voldemort, and those words always mean someone bad with a lot of followers trying to do bad things. Then something crossed her mind. She remembered that when Gandalf told her the story of Merlin's leaving Middle Earth, Gandalf said something about keeping Merlin a secret.

"Wait. You said that men here do not agree with fighter women. How would you convince people to let me into this meeting without telling them about Merlin?" asked Hermione.

Gandalf looked smug and winked at Hermione. "But the leader of the meeting will not be just a man. And he happens to be one of those who know about Merlin." _Merlin, he's so like Dumbledore._

Hermione didn't feel like asking more questions, and Gandalf did not too, so Gandalf rose from the chair and made to leave Hermione's room. But when Gandalf reached Hermione's door, he turned around to look at Hermione again. "So with what name do I have to call you, young lady?"

"Just Hermione, please. Without the lady part." Hermione answered with a smile. "And Sir?" She called Gandalf just after Gandalf turned around against Hermione. Hearing this, Gandalf turned his head. "You are a good story teller." Gandalf chuckled. "Thank you for your compliment, Miss Hermione, although I must say, you would find many people in Middle Earth who can tell stories even better than I do. Lord Elrond and Bilbo Baggins are the perfect examples of those people, although they have different style of story-telling. Now I take my leave." Gandalf then left the room.


	3. Chapter 3 First Impressions

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, their dialogues, and their characters. They belong to their respective owners. So on with the story!

* * *

Chapter 3: First impressions

Hermione's first days in Rivendell were spent talking to Gandalf about the situation of Middle Earth. That's how she found out about Frodo and the Ring. Whenever she was not "interrogating" Gandalf about Middle Earth, she spent her time in her room, re-reading books from Wizarding World, or with Arwen, or the hobbits (particularly with Merry and Pippin, Sam was in Frodo's room all the time). Lord Elrond was always busy, and she understood that. She didn't spend much time with the dark haired man. Gandalf said that rangers tended to keep to themselves when you didn't really know them.

She found out his name was Aragorn, and Hermione thought that he was such a nickname collector. Merry, Pippin, and Sam, for some reason, insisted on calling him Strider, although Sam called him Longshanks on a few occasions (usually when someone brought up about the hard part of the Hobbit's journey to Rivendell). She heard Arwen referred to him as Estel one time. She also heard Bilbo called him 'the Dúnadan' while she was listening to the story of Bilbo's adventure to the Lonely Mountains. Aragorn was not in the story, but Bilbo sometime complained about his unfinished poems and "the Dúnadan's" business that made him unable to assist him in completing the poem. Despite of Bilbo's occasional complaint and dozing off, Gandalf was right when he said that Bilbo could tell stories better than him.

During the few days in Rivendell, she had heard about Elrond's guests. Apparently, some of them had started to come. She chose to avoid them, not knowing what to do or what to say. She had heard that those guests were royalty. There were Elven lords and Dwarf lords. She was definitely out of place.

One morning, it was the October 24th. She was re-reading "Hogwarts in History" in her room when she realised Merry and Pippin hadn't been banging on her door like they did in the last few days at this hour. She stopped reading and walked out of her room. The corridor was really quiet without the loud hobbits running around. She walked through the corridor and heard sounds from Frodo's room. Frodo was awake at last. She peaked inside. "Welcome to Rivendell, Frodo Baggins," Lord Elrond said inside Frodo's room.

Hermione returned to her room with a nervous feeling down her spine. She did feel happy for Frodo's recovery, but Frodo's recovery also meant the meeting would soon be held. She wasn't ready yet. What was she supposed to say in the meeting? What was she supposed to do? _Oh Merlin, help me!_ she tought.

That afternoon, she was told that the meeting would be held tomorrow morning, and that night, a horn was sounded through the air of Rivendell. Another guest had come. _Great. Another royal guest to see my ridiculousness tomorrow in the meeting. _She decided that she didn't want to know who had come this time and just went to bed, skipping dinner in the process.

* * *

That morning, Hermione woke up early, as usual. Unlike her usual routine, though, her first action when she woke up was to walk towards the cupboard to choose an outfit. This meeting is important, and it is essential for her to show that she had adapted with this place. She decided to wear an outfit from Middle Earth, instead of wearing her spare clothes from Earth that she carried in her beaded bag.

When she opened the cupboard, she was overwhelmed with its content. Arwen had said on the night of Hermione's arrival that Lord Elrond and she herself had ordered Elven tailors in Rivendell to make Hermione some clothes, but Hermione never thought that "some" in the words of Arwen and Lord Elrond meant "twenty-something". She had only been in Rivendell for a few days, for Merlin's sake! They were not supposed to be able to make that many clothes in such a short time! But then again, during her short stay in Middle Earth, the Elves had shown many superhuman qualities, like super-sensory, and speed. Maybe this was possible for the Elves.

Hermione sighed and picked a dress from the cupboard that had the most attractive colour in her eyes. She didn't really care about which dress she chose. She knew that if she tried to choose one of those dress, it would take a long time, for all of the dresses were beautiful. Then she took a bath, dressed up, and looked on the mirror.

Hermione gasped when she saw her reflection in the mirror. She couldn't believe the girl in the mirror is the same bookworm from Hogwarts. The dress was floor-length, long-sleeved, and made of maroon fabric with golden linings. The dress was also embroided with figures of lion on the end of the sleeves, right on the back of her palm. She then snapped out of her reverie and started doing her hair in a French-braid with her wand. After she finished doing her hair, she looked upon the mirror one last time. She felt like a true Gryffindor. This thought gave her a little more courage. Yes, she would survive this meeting.

* * *

Boromir was drained, phisically, and mentally. There is no other word that can describe what he felt right now. He had just arrived in Rivendell last night after travelling for months (luckily, he arrived not long before dinner). And while he was travelling, his mind kept pondering in his dream. What the voice in his dream said was very disturbing for him. "Your doom is near at hand" it said. Whose doom? His doom? Or his city's? Or worse, Eru forbid, his country's? Thanks to those thoughts, he didn't exactly have a good night sleep that night.

The next morning, Boromir woke up early. After he got ready, he decided to take a little stroll around Rivendell, since the meeting was still in a few hours. He didn't exactly mind where he was going, so he was a little bit surprised when he found himself in a room full of murals and artifacts. He looked at the beautiful murals. _Lord Elrond is a great artist_. he thought to himself.

Then he came across a painting of Isildur cutting Sauron's fingers with Elendil's broken sword. Although he didn't like the truth the painting depicted, he admired the painting itself. Suddenly, maybe because of his warrior instinct, he felt someone's glare on his back. He looked to his far left, and saw a man about forty with dark, silver-streaked hair and grey eyes. The man, apparently, had been reading a book there since before Boromir entered the room. He was a little taken aback by this sight. He thought there was no man in Rivendell, since it was an Elven territory, and for all he knew, Elves tended to keep to themselves.

"You are no Elf," Boromir stated, rather than asked.

The man then replied politely, as if he had been in Rivendell for a long time. As if he was one of the hosts. "Men of the South are welcome here."

Boromir nodded, appreciating his greeting. This man was polite to him, so why should he be not? Then Boromir asked, "Who are you?"

"I am a friend to Gandalf the Grey," replied the man. Gandalf the Grey. Did he mean Mithrandir? The wizard his brother admired? The one his father despised? He then remembered that even though his father despised the wizard, and he knew his father had a good judgement of character, this wizard was one of the people who strongly opposed Sauron. Maybe this man was one of the Northern Rangers. He heard Mithrandir got together well with them. If this person is here as a friend of Mithrandir's, and as a ranger, then supposedly, he was there to discuss about Sauron too, just like himself.

"Then we are here on common purpose.._._" Boromir said, not knowing how he should call the man. The man didn't say his name, so he wouldn't press the man on the matter. If both he and the man would attend the meeting, then they would know each other's name eventually during the meeting. For know, all he knew was that the man was a friend. "... _friend_." continued Boromir, offering him a slight awkward smile.

Boromir waited for a reply from the man. But he didn't reply, and just continued gazing at Boromir. Feeling awkward, Boromir decided to just ignore the man and looked at the broken sword's shards, just across the painting of Isildur. "The shards of Narsil," he stated in awe. The shards were in good condition. The Elves must have taken care of the shards well. He tried to lift the part that still attached to its handle. He could imagine the sword in its glory day. It must be a great sword indeed. "The blade that cut the Ring from Sauron's hand," he said again while fingering the blade of the sword. He felt a sudden tickling pain when the broken blade cut his finger. "It's still sharp," he stated in surprise. He took back what he thought about the Elves taking care of the shards _well_. More than that, they took care of the shards as if they were keeping the shards for someone important. Or as if the shards were prized possessions to them.

Suddenly he remembered that he was in the presence of someone else in this room, who had been watching him quite intensely. He then schooled his expression quickly, put the broken sword back to its pedestal, rather recklessly, and said, "But no more than a broken heirloom." He then made to leave the room. When he heard the sword's clang when it touched the floor, he hesitated for a minute. Should he go back and put the sword in its place? But then, remembering about the man in the room, he continued to leave the room. While he was walking, he heard the man silently arose from his chair and walked, probably to return the sword to its pedestal _respectfully_.

* * *

Hermione walked around Rivendell. She had been here for a few days now, but she kept getting lost. She always reasoned to everyone that she kept getting lost because the place was huge, bigger than Hogwarts, and everyone always said that if she ever went to Minas Tirith, where ever that is, she shouldn't leave her quarter. The only place that Hermione seemed to always be able to find is the library. She mused to think that maybe it was the bookworm instinct inside her that always led her to the place.

Hermione finally grew bored of walking around, but she still had two hours before the Council meeting started. _Maybe I should go to the library, _she thought. Hermione then remembered how Harry and Ron always finished that sentence for her whenever she said that. She then remembered one evening when she, Harry, and Ron were in the common room, writing an essay for Professor Snape's class, and she got stuck. She asked both Harry and Ron, and Ron simply said, "Of course we don't know, 'Mione. We are the one who usually ask you things, right?" The conversation ended with Hermione scolding the boys for making Hermione their walking library.

Hermione smiled when she remembered that. She didn't fancy being a walking library for both Harry and Ron, but she really missed their banters. She missed being just another guy when she was with her boys. She missed troubles that seemed to always find them no matter how hard they tried to avoid them. Not that she didn't find trouble in Middle Earth, but she really missed facing the troubles with Harry and Ron.

Hermione was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't see where she was going and ended up bumping someone else. Unluckily, the man she bumped onto was carrying a quiver full of arrows in his hands. Even though the man didn't fall, the arrows did. "Sorry!" Hermione said quickly and bowed down to help the man picked up the falling arrows. "I'm really sorry," she said while she was picking the arrows. "I was so lost in my thoughts and didn't see where I was going," she said.

"It is fine, my lady. I was also lost in my own thoughts of home," the man said. His voice was so beautiful in Hermione's ears, and the moment she heard the voice, she was lost in it. She stopped picking the arrows up and looked to the man, who was also crouching in front of her. One look, and she realised instantly that this is no man, but an Elf. She noticed that the Elf had long blond hair, which remind her a little of Lucius Malfoy. The difference was that the Elf's hair was _golden _blond, while Malfoy senior's was _platinum _blond. The Elf was still busy picking up the arrows, and when no more arrows were on the ground, he looked up to Hermione.

Just moments ago, she was lost in his voice, and now she was definitely lost in his eyes. His eyes were light blue, and as deep as the ocean. After a long five seconds, Hermione realised that she was still crouching on the ground, so she decided to stand up. When she did, the Elf flinced a little, as if he just woke up from a daydream. She then gave the arrows to the Elf and the Elf gave her a beautiful smile.

"Are you here for the Council too?" Hermione asked him.

"Yes, my lady, and I assume from your question, that I am going to see you in the Council too?" he asked.

"Yes. Gandalf the Grey invited me, and Lord Elrond had given his permission. You don't mind, do you?"

"No, my lady. Normally, I wouldn't agree for a lady to attend a meeting like this, but I trust Lord Elrond's judgement. He is, afterall, known as one of the wisest in Arda. If he thinks that it is important for you to grace the meeting with your presence, I believe that means your presence is needed indeed," he replied.

Hermione sighed in relief. "Thank you then. Gandalf had warned me about how men in Middle Earth belittling women," Hermione said.

The Elf chuckled. "Yes, I heard they tend to do that. The Elves were more tolerant about letting women in battle than Men, probably because _ellith, _that means female Elves, are trained in combat, while most women in their territory were not," he said.

"I can see that," Hermione said, remembering one time when Merry and Pippin told her the story of how they struggled to get Frodo to Rivendell after the Weathertop attack. They said that Arwen was the one who took Frodo, despite knowing that the Nine Wraiths would chase her.

"So, my lady, if you do not mind my asking, what makes you so important that even Lord Elrond let you, a human maiden, attend the meeting?" he asked.

Hermione hesitated. "Have you ever heard about Merlin?" she asked the thought that if the Elf already knew about Merlin, she had nothing to hide from the Elf.

"I have, my lady. My father told me a story about his encounter with him when he was travelling with Gandalf and some Dwarfs. He said that this Merlin had great power, and that we were fortunate that he was against Sauron, and not against us," he answered. He furrowed his eyebrows in a little confusion. He was probably wondering what Merlin had to do with his question.

Hermione smiled and answered his previous question, "Merlin is my forefather." In instance, the Elf's expression went from one of confusion to one of understanding. "Then we are lucky to have you against Sauron, and not against us," he smiled.

Suddenly, Hermione realised that she had been walking all this time, and the Elf was walking next to her while he was talking to her. She stopped walking, looked around, and saw that she was now in front of the library's door. "Must be my bookworm instinct," she mumbled to herself.

The Elf raised one eyebrow and asked, "Pardon, my lady?"

Hermione chuckled and explained to him, "Nothing. It is just the fact that I keep getting lost whenever I try to go somewhere else in this place, but when it comes to the library, I can always find it. It must have been the bookworm instinct inside me." Her answer made the Elf smiled and nodded.

"Well, then, I think I will go inside and, read," she said while she jerked her thumb to the library's door.

The Elf smiled and nodded his head, but just after Hermione turned to the door, the Elf called her, prompting her to turned back to face him. "I'm sorry, my lady. I just realised that I have been so rude. We have been talking for quite a long time, and we haven't even introduced ourselves. My name is Legolas, and my I have the pleasure to know your name?" he asked her.

Hermione blushed a little, making Legolas smile. "You can call me Hermione, Legolas. It has been a pleasure to meet you," she said. Then Legolas smiled, and turned away.

Hermione walked into the library, and as she closed the library's door, she thought, _If every men in Middle Earth are as chivalrous as Legolas, then maybe living in Middle Earth is not as bad as I thought it would be_. And right after that, she scolded herself for thinking like a ridiculous teenage girl.

* * *

Boromir strolled around a little bit more before he decided to just wait in the meeting place. So he sat there and waited. After waiting for a long time, which he spent for pondering about his dream again, people started to come. There were Elves and dwarfs. Some of the Elves dressed like the Elves in Rivendell, and some other dressed in green, brown, and silver garb. He guessed that these Elves came from the woods. Mirkwood, maybe? The Dwarfs dressed in their typical garb. Chain mail, armour, with axes everywhere. Then Mithrandir came into the meeting room, together with the ranger and a beardless dwarf.

Wait. Is that really a beardless dwarf? Or is that a child of man? He observed more thoroughly, and decided that the person who now sat on Mithrandir's right was not a dwarf, nor a child of man. The person had short, quite neatly curled hair, unlike the Dwarfs who had long, messy, small curled hair. He was also not dressed in mails and armour, like the Dwarfs. And unlike a child of man, this person didn't have the innocent face of one. His face looked like one of the adults'. He must be a Halfling. He had heard about Halflings before, who lived in holes far north, but he never knew that they really existed. He always thought of them as fictional creatures in bedtime stories. _Eru, the world must be going mad!_

Deciding not to think about the Halfling again, Boromir looked around. Almost all attendants of the Council meeting had come. There was only one empty seat on Mithrandir's left. He was a little surprised that the ranger didn't sit next to Mithrandir. But then, maybe the ranger was not here on Mithrandir's request. Maybe he was here just as one of the Rangers. Maybe the empty seat was reserved for someone who actually came here on Mithrandir's request. For his apprentice, maybe? Beside that seat, the only empty seats were for Lord Elrond and his right-hand man. Or Elf.

Suddenly he heard the Dwarfs gasped in surprise. Boromir looked at them. They looked... scandalised. He followed the direction of their vision and found a young lady dressed in red, walking toward the empty seat next to Mithrandir. He was shocked, and felt a little... scandalised. A woman attending this Council meeting? Was she Mithrandir's special invitee? Had he gone mad? Or maybe the woman just got lost in this big place? Yes. That must be it. The woman was not an Elf, he observed. She was a daughter of man. She must not be from this place. She must have gotten lost in this place. Since he was the only other man who didn't come from this place (the Ranger seemed to know this place a lot, so he didn't count), and since he was a good gentleman, Boromir rose from his seat and addressed the young lady. "I'm sorry, milady. Are you lost?" The lady stopped on her track and looked at Boromir.

The young lady's next response was disappointing for Boromir. He had expected her to say something along the line of "Yes, I am. Could you please tell me how to go to bla-bla-bla?", but instead, she said, "No, good sir. I'm pretty sure I'm in the right place. This is where the Council meeting will be held, no?"

* * *

Hermione looked at the light-brown-haired man who asked her if she was lost. And so it started. This will be the beginning of the chauvinist males' attack to me. _Cheers! _she thought to herself. So she replied confidently (at least she tried to look confident when she said these), "No, good sir. I'm pretty sure I'm in the right place. This is where the Council meeting will be held, no?"

As Hermione expected, the man's face looked shocked. He looked like he was gaping while he looked around. _Probably searching for the one who invited me here. _she thought. _That would be Gandalf._ she continued in her mind.

Just as if he was reading her mind, the man's glare was then pointed towards Gandalf. "Mithrandir, did you invite this young lady?" he asked. So Gandalf was also called as Mithrandir. Hermione wondered if Gandalf was also a nickname collector, like Aragorn was.

Gandalf looked amused. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I did, Boromir." He answered lightly.

"But she is a woman, Mithrandir!" The man exclaimed a little angrily. "We are going to discuss about the probability of war among other dreadful things, and you invited her? We shouldn't corrupt her delicate mind with the affairs of war. That is for Men."

_Delicate mind? _she thought. Good news, no one else in the room got as close as confronting her like he did. Maybe not all of the attendants of the meeting were sexist. Bad news, this Boromir was the most sexist person she had ever met, and he was starting to get into her nerves.

Not wanting to cause chaos, she let Gandalf do the talking for now. "I am aware of her gender, Boromir. But I am also aware of her ability to fight. I wouldn't want to be on her wrong side, Boromir." Gandalf must have thought that Hermione was as strong as Merlin. He might be wrong, but she knew if she contradict his statement now, things could get far worse for her. Worse, as in, getting kicked out of the meeting.

Hermione tried to tune the man out of her hearing while she sat. Gandalf was still talking to Boromir. Hermione looked around the place, and her eyes were connected to a familiar pair of blue eyes she met earlier that day. Hermione gave Legolas a small smile that he returned with a beautiful one and a nod. Suddenly, something Boromir said went past her hearing barrier and turned her almost calm mood to an angry one once more. "... she is just an innocent little girl ... weak ... supposed to be protected ... doesn't know a thing about war ..." _That's it! _she thought angrily. The Gryffindor in her was definitely insulted.

"Please don't speak of things that you don't know, Sir." Hermione said through gritted teeth while standing up. Usually, when she hissed like that to Harry and Ron, they would know not to anger her even more. But Boromir wasn't like Harry or Ron. He didn't know about that. So he continued to argue, "But you are nothing but a girl!"

Hearing Boromir's last sentence, Hermione couldn't take it anymore. She pulled out her wand and was about to curse Boromir when she felt Gandalf's hand on her shoulder. Gandalf was now standing behind her and he said, "The meeting is about to begin." He then gestured to the entrance of the meeting place, where Lord Elrond and Erestor was getting in. _Saved by the bell_, Hermione thought. Boromir wasn't exactly saved by the sound of a bell, but that was the closest Muggle term Hermione could apply to the condition. Hermione, Gandalf, and Boromir then sat on their respective seats. _This meeting would be really interesting. _Hermione thought. And how right she was.


	4. Chapter 4 the Council of Elrond

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, their dialogues, and their characters. They belong to their respective owners. So on with the story!

* * *

Chapter 4: The Council of Elrond

As soon as Elrond and Erestor took their seat, the meeting began. "Strangers from distant lands, friends of old." He started. Then he looked towards Hermione. "Lady Hermione." he said while dipping his head in acknowledgement. Hermione was itching, wanting to correct Lord Elrond about her "nobility status", but restrained herself. They didn't gather here to discuss whether to address Hermione as a lady or a peasant. Hermione then dipped her head towards Elrond in return.

Elrond then continued his opening speech. "You've been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor. Middle Earth stands upon the brink of destruction. None can escape it. You will unite or you will fall. Each race is bound to this fate, this one doom." He then ended his opening speech by looking at Frodo and gestured towards the pedestal in the center of the meeting place. "Bring forth the Ring, Frodo."

Frodo looked at Gandalf briefly before he stood up and put the Ring on the said pedestal. After he put the Ring there, Hermione could see that Frodo's expression was a little bit relieved. Murmurs then started to erupt. Hermione had heard before about the Ring's malice from Gandalf. Now, for the first time, Hermione saw its effect on people. Some people grew anxious, and some other just glare at the Ring with a flash of desire in their eyes. But she could see that some remained strong.

Hermione then heard some whisper in her head. _Take me... _it said. _Take me and I can take you back home._ it continued. _You don't have to face this war with them. You can take me and go home peacefully, and then all problem__s__ will be solved. _it said. _These people won't need to worry about me anymore, and you can go home._ Hermione was still pondering on the Ring's words when Gandalf suddenly whispered to her, "Do not believe the Ring, Miss Hermione. It will only use you, and twisted you to get back to his master. Do not trust the Ring." Gandalf was right. The Ring was like a horcrux. It will twist its bearer's mind, like Voldemort's horcrux twist Ron's mind against Harry and Hermione. She must not trust the Ring.

A male voice broke her out of her stupor. "So it is true." Hermione looked to the source of the voice. Boromir. He then stood up. _What is he up to now?_ "In a dream, I saw the eastern sky grow dark, but in the West a pale light lingered. A voice was crying: 'Your doom is near at hand. Isidur's Bane is found.'" He then reached out for the Ring. "Isildur's Bane." _Uh-oh, trouble._ Hermione thought.

Just as Hermione was going to stand up to stop Boromir, Lord Elrond shouted, "Boromir!", and at the same time, Gandalf stood up and spoke in a weird, harsh language, "Ash nazg durbatulûk." There was a sudden earthquake just as Gandalf started to say those words. Everyone was shocked. One of the Dwarf even exclaimed in surprise. "Ash nazg gimbatul." he continued. Dark clouds suddenly covered the sky, darkened the place. "Ash nazg thrakatulûk." By this time, everyone in the room appeared terrified, and Boromir was already seated again. Even Hermione, who didn't understand a bit about what Gandalf said, felt cold all suddenly. "Agh burzum-ishi krimpatul." Just after he finished saying the last sentence, the darkness and terror that filled the place disappeared, and the earthquake stopped. This is definitely not something that Hermione want to experience for the second time.

"Never before has any voice uttered the words of _that tongue_ here in Imladris." Hermione heard Lord Elrond said. In his voice and on his face, Hermione could hear and see his anger and disgust. He must have hated the language so much. Gandalf's excuse for that was, "I do not ask your pardon, Master Elrond, for the Black Speech of Mordor may yet be heard in _every _corner of the West!" He then addressed the whole Council by saying, "The Ring is altogether evil." He then walked back to his seat. Hermione swore that Gandalf suddenly looked older and more tired than usual.

But then Boromir said, "It is a gift." Hermione snorted when he said that. _Was he even listening to the Council? Gandalf just said the Ring is evil! _Hermione thought to herself. Boromir glared daggers at her when he heard Hermione snorted. Hermione, being herself, glared back at him. Her glare must be uncomforting enough to make Boromir flinched a little before he decided to ignore her. He then continued his nonsense, "It is a gift to the foes of Mordor. Why not use this Ring?" He then stood up and started to speech, "Long has my father, the Steward of Gondor, kept the forces of Mordor at bay. By the blood of _our_ people are _your_ lands kept safe." He said the last sentence while pointing his fingers towards the attendants of the Council to give more impression. At last, he looked around and confidently asked, "Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy. Let us use it against him."

His request was cut short when another voice spoke up. "You cannot wield it," it said. The voice was not musical like the Elves', or gruff like the Dwarfs', or giddy like the Hobbits'. And the voice certainly didn't belong to Hermione or Gandalf. It was Aragorn's. As he said that, Boromir turned his head, and then his whole body, to look at Aragorn. He seemed upset for being contradicted so openly. Aragorn quickly continued, "None of us can. The One Ring answers to Sauron _alone_. It has no other master."

"And _what_ would a _Ranger_ know of this matter?" asked Boromir with venom in his voice.

Legolas stood up in Aragorn's defence. It seemed that he had known Aragorn for a quite long time. "This is no mere Ranger," he said. "He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. You owe him your allegiance."

Hermione was actually a little bit confused with what he said. She hadn't seen the relation between Aragorn being himself and the allegiance that Boromir supposedly owed him. But her confusion was directly answered by Boromir's reaction. He looked at Aragorn disbelievingly and said, "Aragorn. This is Isildur's heir?" Hermione's eyes widened. _Aragorn has royal blood? It appears that everyone here is of great importance and lineage. I won't be surprised if the blond elf suddenly claims he is a king or prince in his land. _Hermione thought.

When Hermione was back to reality, Legolas was already seated back on his place and Boromir was looking at him while saying, "Gondor has no king." He then shifted his gaze to Aragorn while he walked to his seat while saying, "Gondor needs no king." Hermione was a little bit relieved when she realised that what she missed when she was spacing out was just banters about Aragorn and the throne of Gondor, and not about the Ring.

Then Gandalf decided to bring the discussion back on track. "Aragorn is right. We cannot use it."

Gandalf's affirmation of Aragorn's statement prompted Elrond, as the moderator of the discussion, to move to the next topic of discussion. "You have only one choice. The Ring must be destroyed." He seemed pleased that the discussion went as he planned.

Elrond's words were met with silence, for only two seconds. One of the Dwarfs suddenly stood up and said, "Then what are we waiting for?" while he walked up to the pedestal and swung his ax to destroy the Ring. But the momentum caused by his swing surprisingly didn't destroy the Ring. It destroyed the the ax instead, and sent the Dwarf flying backward in the process. _What the bloody hell...? _Hermione thought.

"The Ring cannot be destroyed, Gimli, son of Gloin, by any craft that we here possess," Elrond said, grabbing the attention back to him. He looked amused. "The Ring was made in the fires of Mount Doom. Only there can it be unmade. It must be taken deep into Mordor and cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came," he said to the whole Council. He then looked around before continuing, "One of you must do this."

His sentence was met with dead silence. The air was tense. The silence then was broken by Boromir's next words. "One does not simply walk into Mordor," he said. He then started to explain to the whole Council while he remained seated. "Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep. The Great Eye...," he made a circle with his left hand's thumb and forefinger to emphasise his meaning, "...is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland riddled with fire, and ash and dust. The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is folly."

Hermione couldn't believe this man. Her list of "Boromir's Negative Points" was growing long. First, he is sexist. Next, he is insensitive and idiot. Now, he is a pesimist. She then replied to Boromir rather sharply, "Blimey. Haven't you ever heard of the word stealth?" Everyone's attention was then dragged to herself. She was suddenly reminded of her time in Hogwarts, when a teacher asked the whole class a question, and she was almost always the first to lift her arm. Then the whole class's attention would turn to her as the teacher gave Hermione a chance to answer his or her question, perfectly. Something that almost never happened in Snape's class.

She then continued, "If you went there with ten thousand men, you will fail, there is no doubt. He would see us and crush instantly. But if you went through his back door quietly and alone, he might not notice it." By this time, she could see some of the Elves nodded their agreement on her statement, and Legolas smiled widely at her. Hermione smiled.

But her satisfaction was cut short when Boromir snapped at her, "Please, young lady. This is time for us men to speak, not for an innocent lady who has never left her home before." Hermione snorted and glared at Boromir. "Never left my home? If only you can imagine what I went through last year," she said, meaning to cut the debate. She had expressed her point anyway.

But Boromir, being insensitive again, continued to insult her. "Oh, I'm sure I can, milady." He said while he started to stand up, but before he did, Aragorn cut him. "That's enough. This lady did have a point. Stealth is the thing we need." It appeared that his bitterness towards Aragorn still existed, for he snapped back at Aragorn, "I do not care what you think of this matter, _Ranger_. I stand by what I said. This is folly." Hermione then added stubbornness to her list of "Boromir's Negative Points".

Legolas then stood up (Hermione started to think that he is the leader of his companions, since he did all the talking). It appeared that he couldn't contain his anger anymore. He seemed to see that Boromir's attitude was categorised as disrespect towards Lord Elrond, Aragorn, and the whole Council. "Have you heard nothing Lord Elrond has said? The Ring must be destroyed!" His statement was countered by Gimli the Dwarf, who snapped at him, "And I suppose you think you are the one to do it!"

Boromir, didn't want to be left behind by the others, stood up and expressed his opinion immediately after Gimli. "And if we fail what then? What happens when Sauron takes back what is his?" His question was definitely ignored by the Dwarfs, who were focusing themselves to counter the Elves. Gimli then continued, "I will be dead before I see the Ring in the hands of an Elf!" And naturally, after that, chaos erupted. Elves stood up to defend their insulted dignity, Dwarfs stood up upon seeing the Elves' murderous looks, Boromir joined the chaos to defend his opinion, and so on. Among the loud chatter of argumentations, Hermione could still hear Gimli exclaimed, "Never trust an Elf!" _Wow. He does have the insolence to insult an Elf in Elves' territory. _Hermione thought to herself.

The only people remain seated now was Aragorn, Gandalf, Frodo, Elrond, Erestor, and Hermione herself. But that only last for a few moments, for Gandalf was the next to shake his head before saying out loud, "Do you not understand? While you bicker amongst yourself, Sauron's power grows!" He then stood up and join the argument. "None can escape it! You'll all be destroyed!" She heard Gandalf said to someone.

Hermione shook her head. "And they fight. How typical males." She said to herself, and sighed, waiting for the brawl to stop. Then she heard a soft voice from her right. "I will take it!" it said. Hermione turned her head to see Frodo stood up and walked a few steps. His soft voice was drowned in the middle of the loud arguments. Hermione pulled out her wand from her sleeves to silent those people when he heard Frodo shout louder, "I will take it!" This time, the people heard him and stopped arguing, so Hermione put the wand back to its holster in her sleeves. "I will take the Ring to Mordor!" He said with determination in his voice. But whatever courage that he had a few moments before was gone instantly as he realised that everyone was now looking at him. "Though... I do not know the way," Frodo added shakily after that.

Gandalf then said while walking towards Frodo, "I will help you bear this burden, Frodo Baggins, as long as it is yours to bear." He then stood behind Frodo. Aragorn then also rose from his chair and said, "If by my life or death I can protect you, I will." He then walked and kneeled in front of Frodo and continued to say, "You have my sword." Frodo then looked at Aragorn with a great gratitude and smile to him and Gandalf.

Gandalf's and Aragorn's declaration triggered everybody's willingness to help Frodo. "And you have my bow." said Legolas with a sincere smile on his face while he also walked to stand behind Frodo. His smile faltered when Gimli declared, "And my axe!" Not long after Gimli took his place next to Legolas, their expression turned a little sour. Hermione's laughter almost exploded, but she knew that if it did, the great moment revealed in front of her eyes might stop.

Then Boromir stood up and said, "You carry the fates of us all, little one. If this is indeed the will of the Council, then Gondor will see it done." _At least he still has dignity. _Hermione thought.

Hermione then decided that this is her moment to declare, so she stood up and said, "I know that being a Gryffindor means nothing to you all, but to us, Gryffindors, it means that we must be brave, loyal, and true to our words. I promised Gandalf that I will help, and so I will go." As she expected, Boromir was the first to oppose her. "No, you will not!" he said.

Hermione glared at Boromir. "You will be a burden to us," he said to Hermione before he adressed the whole Council and said, "No girl should be allowed to be in this task."

Hermione couldn't take it anymore. She instantly pulled out her wand, strode towards Boromir, and as soon as she was in front of him, she put her wand under his chin. Boromir froze when she did that. And she heard some Dwarfs gasped at the sight. "Please know that the only reason you are still standing on your two legs is because I respect Lord Elrond and the Council. If you say something along that line in front of me ever again, I assure you that even my respect to dear Merlin will not stop me to bring you down," she hissed through her gritted teeth. Then she turned around and looked at Lord Elrond. "I'm sorry, my lord, I will assist Frodo in his quest, but I must leave now to calm myself down. I wouldn't want to explode in this Council," she said and Elrond nodded at her.

Hermione was only a few steps away from leaving the Council when she heard Boromir snorted and said, "This is ridiculous." Hermione stopped walking and closed her eyes. _He's asking for death, _she thought. She turned around, strode until she was about two metres in front of Boromir, pulled out her wand, and hissed, "_Petrificus Totalus_!"

Everyone's eyes bugled out as they watched Boromir's body went rigid as a plank and fell on his back. She walked and crouched to look at Boromir eye to eye. "I warned you before, and Gandalf also told you not to anger me. As I said before, we Gryffindors hold our promises true. I believe now you have learnt the lesson not to mess around with me. Finite incantatem."

As soon as Hermione lift the spell, Boromir scooted away from Hermione, stood up, and asked shakily, "What are you?" Hermione looked at the faces of every attendants of the meeting. The Dwarfs were looking at her in awe (a Dwarf who sat next to Gimli mumbled, "Merlin's magic"), the Elves in curiosity (except Legolas who was smirking), Frodo in shock, and Gandalf's and Elrond's expressions were unreadable. Hermione then confidently answered, "I am a witch." And then, dead silence.

"Very well..." Elrond was going to conclude the meeting when a voice came from the bushes, "Heah!" Then Sam came out from the bushes and exclaimed, "Mr Frodo is not going anywhere without me." Most attendants were surprised by Sam's sudden appearance, except for Gandalf, Hermione, and Aragorn. Lord Elrond seemed a little surprised, although he was also amused. "No, indeed, it is hardly possible to separate you, even when he is summoned to a secret Council, and you are not," he said smugly, making Sam nervous.

Then another voice came from some columns around the meeting place. "Wait! We're coming too!" it said, followed by the figures of Merry and Pippin running towards the meeting place. "You'll have to send us home tied up in a sack to stop us," said Merry while he and Pippin stood beside Frodo and Sam.

"Anyway, you need people of intelligence for this sort of... mission," Pippin said. He then looked unsure before he corrected, "Quest. Thing." Then a reply came from Merry, "Well, that rules you out, Pip." Pippin then glared at Merry.

Gandalf tried to send Elrond some gestures that signalled his opposition on Merry and Pippin's involvement in the quest, but Lord Elrond apparenty didn't catch it. "Ten companions," he mused. "So be it. You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring."

The grand moment was then shattered when Pippin said, "Great! Where are we going?" And then, everyone in the room glared at him disbelievingly.


	5. Chapter 5 Memory

Disclaimer: I do not own both Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings. They belong to their respective owners.

A little Author's Note: I am really sorry if this chapter did not meet your expectation. I personally think this is the worst compared to the previous chapters. :(

* * *

Chapter 5: Memory

After the Council was finished, Lord Elrond summoned the Fellowship to his library. There, he informed them many things about the journey, starting with the possible routes, what might happen, and of course, when they should leave. It was decided that they would leave Rivendell at December 25th, two months after the Council. The date was picked so the Fellowship could have two months to prepare themselves for the task. The said preparation included, but not limited to, fighting lessons and research.

It was two days after the meeting, and Hermione was feeling bored. The hobbits were training hard, and now she was standing alone beside the field, just watching them swinging their swords. Boromir had appointed himself to teach Merry and Pippin swordsmanship. That left Frodo and Sam in Aragorn's responsibility, but their training was held in a later time, so right now on the field, there were only Merry, Pippin, Boromir, Legolas, who was shooting arrows with dead accuracy, and Gimli, who was cleaning his axes. She wanted to join them, but she had promised herself not to join the training if 'the Chauvinist pig' would be her teacher.

Hermione rummaged through her bag to find something she could read or play with and found a book. She recognised it as her father's book. His father once said to her that the book had been passed down to the first child of his family, although nobody had been able to open it up. The book's cover was of leather, and it looked really old. There was a lock on the book, but there was no hole there to insert a key. On the cover of the book, there was a plate of metal attached, and there were engravings of something Hermione couldn't decipher, though they somehow looked familiar.

Hermione's mind was suddenly filled with sadness, as she remembered that her parents won't even recognise her if they meet her now. She sat down on the ground, put the book down beside her, and started crying silently.

"_Edro nin sui edrach annon_," said someone from behind Hermione. Hermione wiped her tears and looked behind her to find an Elf with golden blond hair and piercing blue gaze standing behind her. Legolas.

"I'm sorry?" asked Hermione. Legolas smiled and showed Hermione's book in his hand. It appeared that Hermione had been too saddened with her own thoughts that she didn't even notice when the elf picked up the book from the ground. Or maybe sneaky was just one of the common traits shared among Elves. "'_Edro nin sui edrach annon_'. It was engraved on the book," the Elf said.

"Was it in Elvish?" Hermione was suddenly interested in the condition. Now she realised why the engravings looked suddenly familiar after she arrived here. She must have seen those symbols when she was in Elrond's library. But it raised another question: How could a book with Elvish engravings be in the possession of her family?

Legolas smiled and nodded. "Yes. It was in Sindarin, a form of Elvish." The elf's answer and gesture confirmed Hermione's question.

"What does that mean?" Hermione pointed at the book to indicate that she was asking about the meaning of the engravings.

"It means, 'Open me like you open a door'. It was a little weird in my opinion, my lady. From the appearance of this lock, it doesn't open like a door," Legolas said.

Hermione smiled. "From where I come from, things do not always open up like they appear," Hermione recalled how Harry opened up the snitch by kissing it. "And please, just call me Hermione. I'm not a lady, not in the place where I come from, and definitely not here."

"Very well, _Hermione_," Legolas said, emphasising the last word. "Then how do you open this book up?"

Hermione went into deep thinking. 'Open me like you open a door'. Just like Legolas, she didn't think it meant the book can be physically opened like when people physically open up a door. Then what other way would be possible? Hermione then suddenly, somehow, remembered when she was in her first year at Hogwarts. Hermione, Harry, and Ron were on the third floor, in the forbidden corridor, and Filch's cat showed up and meowed. And what did she do? She opened up one of the locked door by using a spell. Hermione grinned. _That's it!_ Hermione thought triumphantly.

"Maybe, by doing what people with my abilities can do," she said to Legolas. Legolas raised one of his eyebrows. Hermione smiled, took her wand, and pointed it at the book. "_Alohomora_." Her smile widened as the lock on the book was opened. She took the book from Legolas' hand and took out the lock. "The book was opened with magic," explained Hermione to Legolas, despite Legolas already knowing it.

"Well, Hermione, now that your book is opened, I will state my other opinion that I was going to say when I came here. I have been watching you, and you appeared to be really bored. Perhaps you should come to the training, like the others, to prepare yourself for the quest," Legolas said in a serious tone.

Hermione sighed. "Don't worry. I will join the training, later on the day, when Aragorn is the teacher, and not _him_," she rolled her eyes and jerked her head at Boromir's direction.

Legolas chuckled. He found Hermione's dislike to Boromir as both amusing and rational. Boromir had insulted Hermione endlessly since she first entered the courtroom for the meeting. "In that case, while you wait for the time to come, why don't you practice your skill in archery with me?"

Hermione smiled upon hearing Legolas' request. She received archery training when she was little, before she went to Hogwarts. She even still practiced it during summer breaks. "Of course."

* * *

"So, before you shoot an arrow..." Legolas started, but his explanation was cut short when Hermione lifted her hand. "You don't need to explain it," she said. "I've had archery training before." Hermione patted the archery equipments she borrowed from Rivendell's armoury.

Legolas smiled and nodded before he shot an arrow right to the dead centre of his target. "How is Merlin?" Legolas said after he shot. Hermione then shot her arrow and it hit her target just a little bit away from the centre. "Well done," Legolas said. "Thanks," Hermione said before she answered Legolas, "He is long gone. In my world...," Legolas shot. "... it has been a millennium..." Hermione shot. "... after his time." Legolas shot. "I guess the time warping..." Hermione shot. "... between my world and this world..." Legolas shot. "... is pretty messed up." Hermione shot. "Anyway..." Legolas shot. "I didn't even know I am his heir..." Hermione shot. "... until a few days ago." Legolas shot, and then Hermione shot. Hermione started to think that this conversation was getting funny.

"A line as important as Merlin's..." Legolas shot. "Shouldn't you keep track..." Hermione shot. "... of the line?" Legolas shot. Hermione put a hand above her eyes and looked at her target. All her arrows hit her target, but only her last arrow hit the dead centre. She then looked at Legolas's target. His target's condition was the exact opposite of Hermione's. All of his arrows were neatly stuck on the target's dead centre, except one, which strayed a little from the centre. Hermione's eyes almost bugled out of their sockets and her jaw dropped.

Hermione stopped looking at Legolas's target when an arrow whizzed to the said target and again, hit its dead centre. Hermione looked at Legolas in awe. "You are the best archer I have ever seen, Legolas," Hermione said. Hermione then smiled when Legolas grinned at her and said, "Shall we retrieve the arrow?" Hermione nodded, and then they walked slowly to the target together, to retrieve all the arrows on it.

"So to answer your question," Hermione said as she started walking. "I heard from Gandalf earlier that Merlin would go as far as disowning his son if that meant his son was safe. I'm not sure he actually disowned his son, though, since my Headmaster managed to track down the line eventually. That means there might still be some people who knew about Merlin's son and maybe kept track of the line as far as they can." Hermione stopped her explanation when they started pulling off the arrows.

After all the arrows were pulled, Hermione continued her explanation while she and Legolas walked back to their shooting post. "But noting the fact that my Headmaster still found difficulties on finding me, and that no one in my family even realised that we are descended from Merlin, I guess that the family tree they made stopped on some point for some unknown reason. But the proof that the line is still continued still existed. Remember the book I opened earlier?" Hermione turned his head towards Legolas and saw him nodding. "My dad said that the book is some kind of heirloom in his family, passed down to the firstborns of the family. I bet it was Merlin's."

They reached their shooting post, and Legolas was the first to shoot. After he shot, he said to Hermione, "I'm sorry your father has died." Hermione looked at Legolas in a little confusion. "Sorry?" she asked. This time, it was Legolas's turn to get confused. "You said the book was your family heirloom, and now that it is in your possession, I concluded your father has died. Did I make a wrong assumption?" he asked. Hermione's eyes widened a little because of understanding, but then her eyes turned sad as she answered, "You did. My father hasn't died. He and my mother, they just... forget." Hermione then looked away and shot her arrow.

"How could parents forget their own child?" he asked disbelievingly before he shot his arrow. Hermione put an arrow on her bow, aimed, and answered, "I made them forget." Then she let the arrow loose. Legolas could see that it was not a topic that the girl loved to tell to others, so he tried to change the subject. "How was your life before you came here?" Hermione was about to shoot another arrow, but she stopped when she heard Legolas's question. Hermione almost broke down into tears when she remembered all the people who died in the Battle of Hogwarts, but she managed to hold her tears and sat down. That prompted Legolas to look at Hermione with concern written all over his face.

"That's a long story, Legolas. I'd really like to tell you the story, but not while we're practicing, I guess," she said. But Legolas then asked as he sat next to Hermione, "You are already good in archery, maybe you could tell me the story while we wait for Aragorn's session to start?" Apparently, he was really interested in Hermione's story. Hermione looked at Legolas's sincere expression and finally gave away to his request.

"It all started when I was accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Hermione started. "It was a school for wizards (not like Gandalf) and witches (like me). I was eleven at that time..." Hermione's explanation was cut by Legolas's sudden question, "How old are you now?" Hermione smiled and answered him, "Technically, I'm eighteen now."

"In the school, I didn't make many friends at first, probably because I was a know-it-all, as they dubbed me. One day, there was this one boy; his name was Ron Weasley, who insulted me for having no friend. I cried in an abandoned lavatory for that. Unfortunately, there was this mountain troll who broke into the school's wards through the dungeons, and the first place it came to was the lavatory I was in," Hermione said. He looked at Legolas to see his horrified expression. Hermione smirked at him, "Don't worry. I'm here in one piece, see?" Hermione gestured to her body to emphasise her meaning. "Ron and his friend, Harry Potter, saved me that night. And since then, we are best friends."

"From this point, Harry Potter became a prominent point of the story. Harry Potter is the boy who was prophesied to be the downfall of Voldemort, my world's Dark Lord. Voldemort tried to kill Harry when Harry was one year old, but for some complicated reason, Voldemort was destroyed that night, and Harry lived. But the problem was, Voldemort didn't die that night. Before that night, he had made six horcruxes. Horcruxes are cursed objects used to contain a part of someone's soul. In order to make a horcrux, one must kill, which is why horcruxes are considered Dark Magic."

"In the end of my fourth year at Hogwarts, Voldemort managed to return. Since that time, Harry, Ron, and I had a lot of trainings. We had basic swordsmanship lessons to enhance our wand-handling and stamina. We also had duelling lessons, and Harry even had these extra lessons with his least favourite teacher to close his mind from Voldemort's invasion. Since about a year ago, Harry, Ron, and I went travelling around the country to destroy Voldemort's horcruxes, while our government and Hogwarts were already in Voldemort's control. The war was on its peak a few days ago. A battle erupted in Hogwarts. We finally won when Voldemort's Killing Curse rebounded, killing himself. A few hours after the battle ended, Gandalf called me here, and _voila_, here I am," Hermione ended her story.

"That was not that long," Legolas said with a smile. Hermione giggled and replied, "That was the short version of the story. If someone was to write the long, detailed version, he or she would need to divide the story into seven books, one for each year! I haven't even explained the main reason why the war started in the first place." Hermione's giggle then turned into a laugh which was followed by Legolas's laugh.

"So what was the war for?" Legolas asked a few seconds after both of them stopped laughing. "Back home, witches and wizards are unofficially classified into three categories, depending on their 'blood status'. The first kind is the Purebloods, who were born to two magical parents. The second is the Muggle-borns, who are born to two non-magical parents, or Muggles. I am a Muggle-born. The third kind is the Halfbloods, who have one magical parent and one Muggle parent. Many of the Purebloods, though not all of them, believe that their blood purity must be preserved. They think that Muggles are filth, and Muggle-borns are abominations. That's why they call the Muggle-borns Mudbloods. There are also people who are born to magical parents, but have no magic at all, they're called Squibs. The Purebloods think that Squibs are a disgrace, but they despise Muggle-borns more."

"Now, this Voldemort was also a big fan of blood purity, and one of his biggest intentions, beside being an immortal and gaining power, was to eliminate Muggle-borns. It was ironic, really, since Voldemort was not even a Pureblood himself. Now my side, the Light Side, was those who opposed Voldemort for the freedom of all Wizarding World. We knew that if Voldemort succeeded, not only the Muggle-borns would suffer. Everyone who disagreed with him, regardless of their blood status, would suffer. And that's why there was a war," Hermione explained sadly. Then, there was a long moment of silence.

"I'm sorry I keep making you sad," Legolas finally said after he contemplated for a while on the fact that all the conversation topics he picked that day only made her sad. "It's okay, Legolas," replied Hermione. Legolas raised an eyebrow on her choice of word, making a ghost of smile appeared on Hermione's face. "It's not like I want to forget all those events. I have to remember them instead, because they made me who I am." Hermione then gave him a slight smile that he returned before he said, "You are a wonderful lady, Hermione. You are wise, beautiful, kind, and strong." Hermione blushed when she heard Legolas's compliment. She had been complimented for being smart, brilliant, and clever, but rarely for beauty. She then looked away to hide her red face.

Legolas smiled at Hermione's reaction to his compliment. He then realised that Aragorn's session was still in a couple of hours, so started to shift the conversation to Middle Earth, which he knew wouldn't upset Hermione. The conversation lasted only for a few minutes, and after that, they continued their archery practice. When Hermione was called for the training session a couple hours later, she and Legolas went on their separate ways, Hermione to join the training, and Legolas to his quarter.

* * *

Hermione slashed her sword as hard as she could to Aragorn's midsection, and Aragorn moved away easily. Hermione knew from the beginning that this swordfight would be one-sided. Aragorn was a seasoned swordsman, while she, on the other side, had only had basic training back home. The training back home was enough to make her know how to handle a sword, how to parry, how to thrust, and how to duck, but not to have a real swordsfig ht that would define her survival. So, naturally, only a few minutes after the training fight started, Hermione was already on the losing side.

Hermione then remembered a trick Kingsley Shacklebolt once used on her. She hit Aragorn's hand with the hilt of her sword, making Aragorn's sword fell from his hand. After that, she quickly put her left feet behind Aragorn's left leg and pulled it, making Aragorn's balance point shifted, and then she pushed Aragorn after she put her left feet on the ground. Hermione expected Aragorn to fell, but he was too good of a swordsman. Aragorn quickly balanced himself and did the same thing to Hermione, albeit without a sword. Hermione fell on the ground.

Defeated, Hermione looked up to Aragorn, who had picked his sword and put it on her neck. For a second, they stayed still. Then Aragorn smirked, stuck his sword on the ground, and lent Hermione a hand to help her stood up.

"Your last trick was interesting, Lady Hermione," he said just after Hermione stood up. "Just Hermione, please," cut Hermione while she hit the back of her training trousers repeatedly to clean it up. "Very well, Hermione, where did you learn the trick?" continued Aragorn. Hermione smirked at Aragorn. If she could impress Aragorn for knowing that trick, at least that meant she wasn't just a plain student as she thought she was. Then she answered, "I've had this kind of training before, and one of my teachers used the trick on me." Aragorn smiled a little at her satisfaction. "You performed the trick well, too," noted Hermione, referring to when Aragorn repeated Hermione's trick. "Who did you learn it from?" she asked. Aragorn's smile widened and then he tilted his head a little. "From you." He then pulled his sword from the ground and turned around to walk away.

That was Hermione's first real conversation with Aragorn. Hermione smiled. _He is actually quite nice._ Hermione was picking up her pace to catch up with Aragorn when Aragorn suddenly said, "I see that Legolas take an interest in you." Hermione stopped on her track, but seeing that Aragorn didn't stop, she paced up again. "He does?" asked Hermione. She felt a sudden giddiness in her heart, but she didn't know why. "I was nearby when you were having archery training, and I coudn't help myself not to listen to your conversation. I've been his friend for fifty years now, and I have never heard him talking to any woman or Elven maiden that way." he explained. "What way?" Hermione asked. Hermione started to get a little suspicious. _Where is this conversation going?_

"Friendly. In fact, it was almost affectionate," he replied while he turned around with a smug expression on his face. He stared at Hermione for some time, making Hermione uneasy. Hermione couldn't understand his silent, smug stare, and she hated it when she didn't understand something, so she asked him, "And you are implying...?" To her disappointment, a mysterious smile completed his smug expression when he said, "Nothing." He then turned around and walked again to take a few minutes of break, leaving Hermione confused.

* * *

Hermione stared at her bedroom's ceiling. She had been trying to sleep, but today, she just couldn't sleep. She kept thinking on the kiss she once shared with Ron. She didn't really understand why it suddenly annoyed her. A few days ago, the kiss would be a happy memory for her, but now, the kiss was an uncomfortable one. Now that she thought of it over and over again, it felt like kissing a brother. It felt... wrong.

Hermione turned to face the door. She loved Ron, didn't she? She had had a crush on him for such a long time. She even dated Viktor Krum just to make him jealous. She didn't realise it before, or maybe she didn't want to realise it before, that she enjoyed seeing Ron jealous because of her _more_ than she enjoyed dating Viktor. She was also jealous when Ron dated Lavender. That must mean she loved him. Didn't it? But why did the kiss feel so wrong now?

_I need some fresh air, _Hermione thought. She got up of her bed and walked towards her window. The night was still and quiet, and the sky was clear. She could see every stars shone brightly. But the peacefulness of the night didn't bring peace to her mind. She kept pondering about her feeling for Ron until a sudden voice bring her out of her reverie. "It is a peaceful night, isn't it, Hermione?"

Hermione looked down from her window and saw Legolas standing there with a smile. "It is," replied Hermione. She smiled, but her smile faltered when Legolas continued, "Yet you do not feel at peace. What is troubling you, Hermione?"

"How did you know?" replied Hermione.

"They say that eyes are the windows of the soul," answered Legolas. "But you haven't answered my question." Legolas's smile widened and he looked at Hermione square in the eye to search for an answer.

Hermione didn't understand why, but although her mind told her not to tell Legolas, she told him about her problem anyway. In the end of her story, Hermione looked at Legolas and saw him smile. That was the moment Hermione realised that she had just told Legolas about her love life, including the kiss that she shared with Ron. Hermione's eyes widened and she could feel her cheeks blushed. "I'm sorry," she said as she looked away. "I shouldn't have told you about that." The only respond she noticed from Legolas was his chuckle.

After a few moments of silence, Hermione looked at Legolas again and asked him, "Do you think I loved Ron?"

Legolas just smiled at her and said, "You are the only one who know what your heart felt. It could be love between lovers, or just sisterly love, or just an obsession. But in my opinion, that doen't really matter. What matters most is what you feel right now. Do you love him?"

Hermione thought about what Legolas said again. _Do I really love him?_ she asked herself. She thought about Ron again and again, and now all she thought about him was that he was just like a brother to her. It was all just a crush, and it was not there anymore. Hermione smiled faintly and looked at Legolas. "No." she said firmly.

Hermione and Legolas looked at each other in silence for quite a long time, until Hermione decided to call it a night. "Thank you for you wise words, Legolas," she said.

"As expected in my 2931st year in Arda," he replied with a smirk. For a moment, Hermione was speechless, but then she remembered that Legolas was an Elf. Thus, he was immortal. Hermione chuckled on the fact that it was so easy for her to forget that she and Legolas were of different races.

"Well then, good night, old man," she said playfully.

Legoals raised one eyebrow and smirked at her while he replied as playfully as she did, "Good night, oh infant child."


	6. Chapter 6 Choosing the Route

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings, both movies and books. They belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

**A/N: I'm SO sorry for the long update, no thanks to Regina Spektor. My mind had been overtaken by the two beautifully enchanting songs titled "Laughing with" and "Don't Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas)", both belong to the said talented singer (She's still my favourite singer, though :D). They had caused my very first big writer's block. Everytime I tried to write something, those songs kept ringing in my head, destroying any sentence formed in my mind. You couldn't imagine the amount of hours I spent on reading fanfictions and books just to get my mind back on track. So enough with the note, and on with the story.**

* * *

Chapter 6: Choosing the Route

"The Ringbearer is setting out on the Quest of Mount Doom," announced Lord Elrond that morning. Yes, it had been two months after the Council. Many things had changed. Most of the changes were good. For example, Hermione's skill in swordsmanship had improved from amateur at best to fine. Her archery skill was also better now, after having training with Legolas. Her relationships with most of the other members of the Fellowship were also relatively close now.

Of all the good changes that happened in the past two months, she liked the last one the most. She thought of Aragorn as a brother figure now with his knowing glances and understanding. At first she wanted to consider Aragorn like a father, because of his age, but he never behaved like his actual age. About Gandalf, he was like a mentor to her. He didn't mentor her to do his kind of magic, of course, since the nature of their magic was different. He did pretty much like when Professor Dumbledore mentored Harry with his wisdom and grandfather-like affection. The difference was, Gandalf was far grumpier than Professor Dumbledore.

She spent enough time with Merry and Pippin to know that they were almost as good as Fred and George when it came to throwing pranks. The only difference between the two duos was the help of magic. While the Weasley twins' pranks were magic-based, the Hobbit duo's were not. Frodo and Sam had loosened up on her, and now they consider her their friend. Despite Gimli's initial doubt on her, he quickly accepted her participation in the quest after he heard stories about Merlin from his father, Glóin. Glóin was one of the Dwarfs who had met Merlin during their quest with Bilbo.

Now about Legolas, she didn't exactly know how to describe the relationship she had with Legolas. She once tried to compare him to a brother, a father figure, a friend, even a best friend like Harry and Ron, but none of those fitted. She and Legolas usually met at night when Hermione was watching the sky before she slept. They didn't talk much during their meetings. They mostly just acknowledged each others' presence while they watched the stars together. Hermione never admit that what used to be accidental meetings were not accidental anymore, but she knew better in her heart. Hermione would look out of her window every night, expecting Legolas to appear, and Legolas always came.

But nothing is perfect, they say. Her relationship with the others may get better, but her relationship with Boromir, which was already bad, only got worse during the last two months. Boromir voiced his blatant refusal to let Hermione in the quest in every opportunities he got, and usually, in the presence of the said girl. To make things worse, he always added belittling insults here and there whenever he talked about it. Hermione was usually a cool-headed girl who wouldn't pay much attention to insults, but she still had limits. In some occasions, Hermione was the one who ended them with a hex or a nasty curse.

The worst confrontation happened just a few days ago, when Boromir challenged her into a duel during a supposedly-peaceful dinner. It started after Boromir tried to convince the Fellowship for the thousandth time to leave Hermione in Rivendell. During a heated argument, Boromir announced to challenge Hermione in a duel, to prove that she was not capable to survive the task. The fight only lasted a few minutes, with Hermione winning the duel of course, because of the aid of magic. "Smart people don't mess with witches," she said to Boromir that day. He tried to ask for a rematch without magic that time, saying she was cheating with magic, but everybody agreed that she was allowed to do magic during the duel. His reason when he asked for a challenge was to prove her inability to survive a fight, not to compare swordsmanship skills. No one had ever seen Boromir smiled again after that, not even Merry and Pippin, who were the closest to him.

Hermione's quick review on the events of the past two months was stopped when Elrond continued his speech. "On you who travel with him, no oath nor bond is laid to go further than you will. Farewell. Hold to your purpose. May the blessings of Elves..." he looked to Legolas, "... and Men..." he looked to Boromir and then Aragorn, "... and all Free Folk..." he looked to the rest of us, "... go with you." He then dipped his head while he put his right hand on his heart. Hermione noted that this must be some kind of Elvish formal greeting, for Legolas and Aragorn, who were the ones who have lived among Elves the longest among the lot of them, repeated the motion in response to Elrond's gesture. Feeling extremely rude for not replying someone's greeting, especially when the person greeting her had been her host for the last couple of months, Hermione also dipped her head and put her right hand on her heart.

When she looked up again, she saw Lord Elrond smiled proudly at her. She suddenly remembered a conversation she had with Lord Elrond one evening in the library, just a few days ago.

"_My heart is troubled to know that you are to go on a dangerous quest," he started. Hermione was shocked to hear those belittling words from Lord Elrond. She expected such words coming from the like of Boromir, but Lord Elrond? She almost bursted out in rage, but when she looked at Lord Elrond's expression that time, she could see nothing but pure concern and sincerity, and she calmed down instantly. "I've been on more dangerous quests before, my Lord. I've been petrified, trapped, and tortured before, yet I'm still standing strong here right now. You don't have to worry about me." Hermione smiled at him._

_When Hermione smiled at Lord Elrond, his concerned expression turned into a sad one. He smiled sadly and said to Hermione, "In your time here, you have been like a second daughter to me, and right now, my heart is torn to let you go. But I know you are a strong lady. All I can do now is hoping the Valar would protect you during you." After he said that, his expression changed into a more relieved one, and then he looked at Hermione in the eye as he said, "I am proud to have known you, Hermione."_

"The Fellowship awaits the Ringbearer," Gandalf announced, breaking Hermione's stupor. Her attention was quickly dragged to Frodo, who was turning around nervously with a grim expression on his face. Hermione could see that in the last couple of months, Frodo had learnt more about the burden he had put on his own shoulders. Looking at Frodo now felt like looking at Harry Potter before Voldemort's death. The two have the same weariness in their eyes. _Poor Frodo. _Hermione thought.

Hermione smiled at Frodo, reassuring him to step forward. Frodo seemed to notice this, and he started to walk. A few moments after he started moving, he looked around at the other member of the Fellowship's faces, who smiled at him as they tried to give him more courage. After he walked past all the Fellowship, they started to walk, following Frodo. Just after Frodo reached the archway, Hermione heard him whispering to Gandalf, and Legolas chuckled silently beside her. Hermione raised one eyebrow at him while giving him an inquisitive look. Legolas's only response at the time was a shaking head and a smirk. _Damn the Elves and their bloody hearing. _Her upset expression must have shown clearly on her face, since Legolas's smirk only got wider.

* * *

It had been about two weeks after the Fellowship left Rivendell. The last two weeks were mostly bleak to Hermione. The Fellowship were mostly quiet while they kept walking. Everyone seemed to understand that the burden they picked for themselves were really heavy. There were times where the atmosphere was suddenly filled with tension. Hermione recognised those times as the times when the Ring tried to take over the minds of the Fellowship. There were only a few things that could lift the Fellowship's mood, like Merry and Pippin's light banters and sword practice, and Legolas and Gimli's unique rivalry.

"I'm tired," Pippin complained in the middle of the day. _How Pippin._ Hermione thought. In the last two weeks, Pippin was the one who asked for rest the most often, compared to the other members. Most of the other members (at least Hermione, Aragorn, Boromir, and Gimli) rolled their eyes when they heard Pippin's complains. It was the third time he asked for rest that day. "Come on, Pip. Even Miss Hermione isn't tired yet, and you have already asked for rest three times today," Merry scolded her cousin. "But I'm tired of walking, and my last two requests were not fulfilled," Pippin replied. "Gandalf, could we rest?" he asked.

Everyone looked at Gandalf. He looked around and then he looked down at Frodo, who was looking at him under his cloak. He could see the tiredness in his eyes. The Ring must have been a great burden for him. Gandalf sighed and looked around again. "We have done well," he said. "I think we all deserve a little rest," he said, winking one of his eyes to Frodo, who was gratefully smiling at him.

Everyone quickly set in. Merry and Pippin sat down on a rock, looking relieved. Boromir and Aragorn quietly got a fire going. Frodo sat down quietly beside Gandalf, who were smoking heavily, while he watched Sam pulling out various pots and spices from his backpack. Gimli was also smoking, although he did it alone, just a few metres from where Gandalf and Frodo sat. Legolas was no where to be seen. He was probably off hunting something for Sam to cook. As much as he hated killing animals, he knew that the other members of the Fellowship didn't actually fancy "full vegan diet", as Hermione called it.

Just a few minutes after he sat, Pippin said, "I'm bored," attracting murderous glare from his cousin, Merry. Hermione chuckled. She once compared Merry and Pippin to Fred and George, thinking how alike they were, but now, after two weeks of travel, she could see the big difference between the two pairs. Merry and Pippin quarrelled much more often than Fred and George. "Can we have sword training?" Pippin chimed expectantly towards Boromir, who was still working on the fire with Aragorn.

"Didn't you say you were tired?" asked Hermione, raising one of her eyebrows.

Pippin just smiled childishly at her while he said, "I said, Miss, I was tired _of walking_." Hermione smiled at his answer, while Merry snorted and shook his head in disbelief, although it was clear in his face that he was bored too. Hermione heard something that sounded like an amused snort from Boromir.

"So, Boromir, could we have a training?" asked Pippin when Boromir stood up and turned around to face the two hobbits. Hermione smiled when she saw a little twitching on the corner of Boromir's lips. It was true then that Boromir had been listening to their conversation and found it amusing. "Pick up your swords," Boromir said to answer Pippin's request. Pippin and Merry's expressions brightened and they quickly stood up to pick up their swords. Not long after, Boromir was shouting numbers while the sound of swords clanging echoed from the place.

"Where are we, Gandalf?" Hermione heard Frodo asked. Hermione turned her head around to look to where Frodo and Gandalf sat. "We are currently somewhere in Hollin, my dear hobbit," replied Gandalf. "We must hold this course, west of the Misty Mountains, for 40 days. If our luck holds, the Gap of Rohan will still be open to us. From there, our road turns east to Mordor," continued Gandalf. Hermione saw Frodo nodded and walked to sit on another rock, near where Sam was cooking.

Hermione heard someone sat next to her. Without looking, Hermione knew it was Legolas. "Back from hunting?" she asked him, and turned her head to look at Legolas. "No," he replied, smiling. Hermione raised one eyebrow. _Oh, I thought he was hunting for food. _"Where have you been, then?" she asked.

"I was looking around the place. This place used to be called Eregion. It was the home of a great colony of Elves," he answered, looking sad. In the background, Hermione vaguely heard Gimli suggested Gandalf to go through somewhere called Moria and said something about his cousin, but Hermione wasn't really paying attention to Gimli. "What happened?" she asked Legolas. "There was a battle very long ago, and this place was destroyed. It has never been restored ever since."**[1]**

Both Hermione and Legolas were silent. Hermione could hear Gandalf responded to Gimli's suggestion. "No, Gimli, I would not take the road through Moria unless I had no other choice," he said. Legolas's expression turned dark, as if he too was disturbed by Gimli's suggestion to go through Moria. "What's wrong with Moria?" Hermione asked. Legolas stayed silent for a moment, as if he was trying to find the best way to explain, and in the end, he just said, "It's a black chasm," and stood up, leaving Hermione a little confused.

Suddenly, Hermione's attention turned to Pippin when he yelped. He was clutching his hand. It seemed that Boromir had unintentionally hurt him. "Ah! Sorry," Boromir said quickly, guilt written all over his face, as he walked to Pippin, intended to tend to his wounded hand. Then chaos erupted when Pippin quickly kicked Boromir's leg, and Merry attacked Boromir, making him fall. "Get him!" Merry shouted. "For the Shire!" "Hold him! Hold him down, Merry!" And for the first time since the Fellowship started their journey, Boromir smiled and laughed.

Hermione was laughing so hard until she couldn't hear whatever it was Aragorn mumbled as he walked to stop the chaos. She laughed even harder when Aragorn was tackled and pulled into the chaos by the hobbits. She decided to turn around and tried to stop laughing, because her stomach started to hurt. She turned just at the right time to hear Sam asked, "What is that?" She looked ahead and saw that Legolas was already standing on a rock far ahead.

"Nothing. It's just a wisp of cloud," Gimli said nonchalantly. Hermione put a hand over her eyes and narrowed her eyes into slits. She didn't really agree with him as she saw what Sam saw. There was a dark shadow far ahead, and it appeared to be moving quite quickly.

"It's moving fast," noted Boromir from behind Hermione. It sounded like the chaos had been taken care of. "Against the wind," Boromir continued. Hermione was getting worried. If it was not cloud, then what was it?

"Crebain, from Dunland!" Legolas announced worrily. _What? _Hermione thought, freezing on spot because of confusion. Aragorn's command to hide broke Hermione out of her freezing form, and she panicked instantly. Where was she supposed to hide? She could hear shouts of "Hurry!" "Take cover!" and she noticed someone threw water on the fire, making her panicky state even worse.

"Hermione! Here!" she heard someone called her as the person took her arm and dragged her to the nearest bushes. She looked at the long blond hair and noticed that it was Legolas, but unluckily for her, when Legolas dragged her, she tripped and fell. There was no time now. The crebain was near. _What should I do? What should I do? WHAT SHOULD I DO?_ Suddenly, in the back of her mind, a voice said, _Don't forget, you are a witch, Hermione._ "Bloody hell!" she muttered as she pulled out her wand and casted disillusionment charm on Legolas, who was still holding her arm, and herself. She heard a rock near her gasped. She smiled for a moment and waited for the flock of crebain, which turned out to be crow-like birds, passed. _Oh, I mustn't forget to put up protection wards next time we take up rest._

When the crebain had passed, she felt Legolas tugged her arm and saw people started to crawl out of their hiding place. She cancelled the charm, and heard Sam gasped again. The people gazed at the birds, hoping the birds hadn't notice them.

"Spies of Saruman," Gandalf said as he stood up. "The passage south is being watched." He walked out of his hiding place with a kind of disgusted expression. Or was it annoyed? Maybe some point in the middle. Then he looked at every member of the Fellowship before he announced, "We must take the Pass of Caradhras."

Hermione followed Gandalf's gaze and looked at the snow-covered mountain. Hermione was thankful that she wasn't wearing a dress at the time. _It shouldn't be that bad. _Hermione thought. _As long as there's no storm coming. _It appeared that the other members, except for Legolas, didn't agree with her, for their expression turned sour.

* * *

They had been hiking up the snow-covered mountain for a few hours now, and the air started to get colder. Hermione looked into her beaded bag, hoping she would find something that could warm her up, and she found a denim jacket. _It's better than nothing_. she thought to herself as she wore the jacket.

"That is a weird piece of clothing," a voice said behind her. She turned her head and saw Aragorn. "It looked too thick and rough to be just a shirt, but the shape is just like one. What is that called?" he continued. Hermione smiled. She hadn't talked much with Aragorn since they travelled, but everytime they talked, it was about something casually unimportant, like Gandalf's smoking habit, the hobbit's meals, and Hermione's clothes. "This is called a jacket. It is an outer cloth worn to cover up mostly from cold air," she explained and Aragorn nodded. "Jacket," he repeated.

An "ugh" cut their conversation, and their attention was turned to the figure rolling down the hill. Frodo fell. "Frodo!" Aragorn shout as he and Hermione walked to Frodo's still rolling figure. They helped Frodo up, and Hermione asked him, "Are you okay?"

Frodo didn't answer Hermione, and instead, put a hand inside his shirt, and panickedly looked ahead. Hermione followed his gaze, and saw the Ring lying on the snow. But before she made a move, a hand touched the chain of the Ring and picked it up. Boromir. Hermione didn't like the way he stared at the Ring. He seemed... entranced by the Ring.

"Boromir," Hermione called softly. Boromir didn't react. It was either he didn't hear it or he heard it but didn't show any indication that he heard that. "Boromir," Aragorn repeated.

"It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing," Boromir said. He said it so quietly, but the silence that overwhelmed the situation made even the quietest sound heard. "Such a little thing," he continued as his other hand reached to touch the Ring.

"Boromir!" Aragorn called louder, and this time, Boromir heard that. He flinched a little, as if he had just been awoken from a daydream, and looked at Aragorn, Frodo, and Hermione. "Give the Ring to Frodo," Aragorn continued.

Boromir seemed to hesitate, but he walked to Frodo at last and extended his arm to give the chain to Frodo. "As you wish," he said. He seemed disappointed when Frodo grabbed the chain from his hand. "I care not." He was smiling as he said that, but Hermione could see that the smile didn't reach his eyes. He looked at Aragorn and Hermione, who were looking at him with distrust. Hermione could see the calculation in his eyes, and she could also guess that that time, he was thinking something that sounded like, "What should I do or say to make them trust me?" The unsincere smile hadn't faded from his face when he ruffled Frodo's hair and turned around to continue walking. As he walked away, Hermione felt the tension disappeared, and Hermione swore that from the corner of her eyes, she saw Aragorn removed his hand from the hilt of his sword.

Even though the tension had disappeared and everyone had walked again, Hermione still could feel the negative emotion flowing from the Ring, so she decided to walk faster, getting as far away as she could from the Ring. "You could put your wand away again," she heard as she walked past Legolas. "Huh?" she asked confusedly. She walked next to Legolas and looked at her wand arm. True as he said, the wand was clutched firmly in her hand. She must have involuntarily pulled it out during the last tension. "Oh. Thanks." She slipped the wand back to its holster in her sleeves.

"You are welcome," Legolas replied with a smile. Hermione could feel her heart warmed when she saw his smile, and she couldn't help herself to smile back.

"I found this on the ground when we were hiding from crebain," Legolas said suddenly while he searched his pockets for something and brought out a flower. The flower was snowy white and beautiful. Hermione smiled wider. "I think the land is recovering itself," he said happily. Not giddily happy, but like when a father happily praised his son when his son accomplished something for the first time. He seemed amazed. He held out the flower to Hermione, and she took the flower. She played with the flower absent-mindedly and smelled it. "It's beautiful," she said.

"Keep it," Legolas said. Hermione looked at his smiling face gratefully and said, "Thanks." She gave the flower back to Legolas for a moment to reach into her beaded bag and pulled out her father's book. She put the flower between two pages of the book and closed the book, then put it back inside her beaded bag.

Hermione looked back at Legolas and found herself lost in his eyes again. "Legolas, Hermione!" she heard Aragorn called. That was when she realised that their faces were just centimetres apart, and they had been left behind. They must have stopped walking at some point during their conversation while the others kept walking. Hermione looked at Aragorn's smug expression as he said, "Come."

* * *

_It's not that bad as long as there's no storm coming_. That was what Hermione thought two days ago, before they started to hike up Caradhras, and she was right. Everything was relatively safe, until yesterday, when a really bad storm started to blow. Everyone in the Fellowship grumbled occasionally that they should have chosen another road, but Gandalf persisted that they should walked over the Path of Caradhras. Hermione looked up enviously at Legolas, who were walking _on_ the thick snow easily. Some Elves trait, it appeared. Everyone else, including Hermione, were fighting their way _through_ the thick snow.

Suddenly, Legolas sped up his pace to stood in front of the Fellowship and looked around, as if he was looking for something. "What is it, Legolas?" she shouted to the Elf. "There is a fell voice in the air," he announced to the whole company. Hermione tried to listen more carefully, and faintly heard some chanting in an unknown language. Hermione didn't know what language that was, but the language sounded old.

"It's Saruman!" Gandalf shouted. There was a sudden rumble from above, and some big rocks fell down from the top of the mountain. Luckily, none of the rocks hit them.

"He's trying to bring down the mountain!" Aragorn shouted to Gandalf. "Gandalf, we must turn back!" he continued. Hermione hoped that this time, Gandalf would listen to him, but he didn't.

"No!" Gandalf insisted. "_Losto Caradhras_!_ Sedho_,_ hodo, nuitho i 'ruith_!" Gandalf shouted, but nothing happened. Well, the storm still happened. But no good change happened.

"Couldn't you make the storm stop, Miss Hermione?" Sam shouted to Hermione.

"I couldn't. The weather is something we cannot tamper with," Hermione shout back to Sam.

"Saruman could. Maybe you could too," Pippin shouted.

Hermione shook her head regretfully. "When I said we cannot, it meant my kind and I, Pip, Sam," she shouted back to the two hobbits.

Everyone suddenly looked up when a lightning struck the top of the mountain, and a large amount of snow fell down. Without thinking, Hermione pointed her wand up, closed her eyes, and shouted, "_Wingardium leviosa_!"

She expected to feel the snow falling on them, but she didn't feel it. When she opened her eyes, she saw every single member of the Fellowship, except her, crouched down and looked up at the hovering snow. Hermione realised that she must have succeeded and quickly pointed her wand away, to move the hovering snow and let it fell down the chasm next to them.

All of the Fellowship, surprisingly including Boromir, looked at her in awe. Hermione blushed a little, and thanked Whoever was Upstairs that the cold air had made her face red even before she blushed. "We must get off the mountain!" Hermione shouted to Gandalf, successfully shoved away the attention back to the unconvenient condition they were in.

"Aye!" Hermione heard (surprisingly) Boromir agreed. "We must! Make for the Gap of Rohan, and take the west road to my city!" he shouted. Aragorn contradicted his advice quickly. "The Gap of Rohan takes us too close to Isengard!"

Gimli, seeing the opportunity, suggested the whole Fellowship, "We cannot pass _over_ the mountain, let us go _under_ it," he said. Everyone switched their attention to Gimli. "Let us go through the Mines of Moria." Everyone stayed silent. Gandalf, Aragorn, and Legolas looked grim. _It is a black chasm. _Hermione remembered Legolas said that a few days ago in Hollin. She didn't really understand what was so bad about it. Gimli appeared to be very confident about going there.

After a long moment of silence, Gandalf said, "Let the Ringbearer decide." Everyone looked at Frodo instantly, waiting for answer, while he looked shocked at the sudden responsibility put on him. Hermione felt the sudden pity on him again. She remembered how Harry was pushed into making decisions that could decide the survival of others. It was not easy for him, and it would certainly not be easy for Frodo.

"We cannot stay here!" Boromir shouted. "This will be the death of the Hobbits!" Hermione's heart was torn between agreeing him and giving Frodo time to decide. It was true what he said. The weather was not friendly at all. It was, in fact, dangerous. They must get off the mountain as fast as they could. But in the other hand, Frodo needed his time to decide. Hermione had seen what usually happened when Harry made rash decisions because of the lack of time. It usually ended up badly.

"Frodo?" she heard Gandalf asked.

"Oh, give him some time to think, for Merlin's sake!" she shouted to Boromir and Gandalf. "Rash decision is never good for anyone! It's not like he would take hours to decide!"

Boromir opened his mouth to contradict her, but closed his mouth again. He, as a seasoned captain and warrior, must have understood what would happen if someone made a rash decision on something important during a war. So, instead, he looked at Frodo expectantly again.

"We will go through the mines," Frodo said after a long silence.

"So be it," Gandalf said grimly.

* * *

**[1] I didn't find any reference in my LotR book about Eregion after its destruction in S.A. 1697, so I took the liberty to conclude that it had never been restored ever since. If anyone ever found any reference that said otherwise, please tell me, so I could correct this part. :D**


	7. Chapter 7 Upside Down

**Disclaimer: I own my laptop. I own my copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings series of books. I own my headphone. I own... my brain (desperate!). But no, I do not own the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. They belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

**A/N: For the second time since I write this story, I put my long author's note in the beginning of the chapter. :D Arabellagrace said that the almost-kiss was plain evil. I must say that I agree. That is the little snowball that will cause an avalanche in Legolas and Hermione's story. You don't expect their story to go bumpless, do you? Don't worry, everything will end well. Only, it will end well in later chapters. Believe me, this is necessary. A bumpless romance is not only boring, but also fragile. :D And for those who likes the confrontations between Boromir and Hermione, I'm really sorry. I think it is about time for that to change. I never intended to antagonise Boromir in the first place. I always viewed his attitude as a result of his upbringing. He was stubborn by nature, and he held a strong view against the idea of a warrior lady. Naturally, when he met Hermione, he thought that she was a disgrace to women in general. Hence, the confrontations. Well, this note is long enough. On with the story before you got bored with this.**

* * *

Chapter 7: Upside Down

Their way down was so much easier than their way up the mountain. It was as if the world didn't allow them to go over Caradhras. Or maybe it was not the world that didn't allow them. It was Saruman. Come to think of it, it appeared as if Saruman was herding them to Moria. At first, he blocked their path in Eregion by placing his spies, and when they decided to take the Pass of Caradhras, he forced them down. That made Hermione wondered, what was so bad about Moria, until Saruman wanted them to take the mines so much?

It took almost twelve hours for them until they finally reached ground level. The night had fallen by that time, and the Fellowship decided to take a night rest. Just like the noon a few days ago, once they settled there, Boromir and Aragorn worked on the fire, and Sam was busy with his pots and spices again. Learning from the previous mistake, Hermione did some work of putting wards around their camp this time.

As she walked around the place to cast the protective spells, she took a quick glance at Legolas. Their eyes locked for a millisecond, but then he quickly looked away and went back to attentively wiping his twin knives. Hermione sighed. She had realised that he was avoiding her for quite some time now. She didn't really understand why, but since they started going down the mountain and the storm ceased to blow, he had distanced himself from her. There were times when he purposefully ignored her and talked to Aragorn or Gandalf instead, even though they were a little bit ahead than him and Hermione was right next to him. He also refused to look at Hermione in the eye. Hermione suspected that this had been going on even before that, since their almost-kiss. Since _the _incident, he hadn't talked a word to Hermione. The only time he responded to her after that incident was when he announced the fell voice to the Fellowship, that was if he did say that to respond to her question.

Legolas's sudden retrieve didn't go unnoticed by Aragorn. Good Merlin, he was very perceptive. Just a couple of hours since they started hiking down Caradhras, he already knew about it and asked Hermione about it.

"_Is something wrong between you and Legolas?" said Aragorn as he walked beside Hermione._

"_Nothing," Hermione said, looking at the ground as she walked. Of course that was a lie. She had noticed that Legolas had been avoiding talking to __her in the last couple of hours._

"_Is that true?" asked Aragorn, prompting Hermione to look at his face. His eyebrows were furrowed, and a frown evident in his face. She could feel his eyes trying to reach deeper into her mind successfully. She sighed. "I don't know."_

"_How do you know?" she asked after a few moments of silence. The other members of the Fellowship hadn't seemed to notice that, but somehow, this scruffy Ranger had._

"_I have been his friend for more than fifty years, Hermione. I _know_," the Ranger said with a deep frown before walking away to talk to the other object of their conversation._

Hermione huffed. She had work to do to assure the Fellowship's survival tonight. She stopped her reverie and proceeded to her job. She was casting Muffliato on the last side of the camp, when Boromir suddenly cleared his throat right behind Hermione. At first, she thought that Boromir was just passing by, and she almost proceeded to the next protection spell when she felt a hand on her right shoulder. She turned around and raised an eyebrow at Boromir, "Yes?"

It was clear that Boromir _was_ going to say something to Hermione. He opened his mouth multiple times, only to close it again before he emitted any sound. Hermione sighed at his gaping-like-a-fish expression and started to turn around when Boromir suddenly said, "I'm sorry."

Hermione looked at Boromir wide-eyed in disbelief as she heard him said that. The arrogant Boromir, the sexist Boromir, the stubborn Boromir, suddenly said sorry to her! Hermione started to look around, trying to find any evidence that said she had dozed off sometime ago and this is just a dream. _Has Hell freezed? Have Hobbits grown tall? Are pigs flying? _Unfortunately (or maybe the more appropriate word is, fortunately), she couldn't find it. She looked at Boromir again. He was really nervous. His eyes kept wandering here and there, looking at anything but her, and he was fidgeting.

"O...kay," Hermione said with doubt and suspicion evident in her voice and expression. What if this was a trick Boromir pulled on her? But despite her doubtful expression, Boromir looked more relieved as he said the next sentence, "And I thank you, my lady."

Hermione looked at Boromir interrogatively, and Boromir continued, "You might have saved the lives of the whole Fellowship by holding the snow. I think I owed you." For the next few seconds, Hermione's mind went rampage, calculating Boromir's sudden change in attitude, but she finally decided to take a chance. She smiled at him. "Umm... You're welcome. I guess." And then, the awkward silence took place.

"So what's with the sudden change in your mind?" Hermione asked, deciding to start a conversation while she turned around to continue finishing her job.

"Ummm..." said Boromir for a few moments, making Hermione almost turned around again. But before she did, he continued, "I can finally see why you are deemed strong enough for this quest." Hermione chuckled a little at his statement. _Took you long enough_. she thought.

"And... umm..." Silence again. Hermione almost thought he actually just wanted to say 'um's to her. Finishing her job with the last ward, she turned around and faced Boromir."Yes?" she asked Boromir with a smile.

"You saved my life, my lady," he said. "I owed you." Hermione's smile faltered for a while as something struck her. He said 'I owed you' with so much sincerity, yet his voice still gave away his disbelief. He had never thought he would ever owe any women for saving his life. Maybe it had been the other way around all his life, with many women owing him for saving their lives. But when she saved the whole Fellowship from being knocked off the mountain by snow up on Caradhras, the realisation struck him. He finally _owed_ a woman for saving his life. That scarred his pride as a man, of course, but it also changed his opinion about her drastically.

"Don't mention it," she replied. She almost laughed when she watched his expression changed from a serious and sincere one to a confused one. It was apparent that the expression she used was not a common one in Middle Earth.

"Don't mention what, my lady?" he asked as he blinked several times in confusion, making Hermione bursted out in mild laughter.

"It is a common expression back home. It is used as a reply when someone thanks you," she said, and his expression changed again to an understanding one and he nodded.

"Now, since there is no more feud between us, please stop calling me 'my lady'. Hermione is enough," she finally said to him before she went back to the camp to sit. As a reply, he said her name once and followed her back to the camp.

"My la... Hermione, what happened last year?" Boromir asked her.

"Last year?" Hermione asked, not entirely sure about what Boromir was asking.

"In the Council, you said that you went through something terrible last year," he explained. His face was very... interested.

"I did?" Hermione asked herself. She tried to remember harder, but she couldn't. The fact that the Council was not talking about her didn't help her remember how last year's events were mentioned.

"Yes, m... Hermione. 'Twas not exactly what you said word-by-word, but you did," he said, and Hermione nodded. Hermione now vaguely remember Boromir insulting her, and she retorted back by saying something along that line. She was quite surprised when she noticed again how much Boromir had changed by that one even on the mountain.

"There was this war back home," she started. "Pretty much like the one we're at now. A bunch of good people against an evil, practically immortal person and his followers. My best friend, Harry, was the one that was destined to kill Voldemort. Last year, he, my other best friend, Ron, and I went on a hunt to destroy objects that made Voldemort immortal, and during the journey, we were captured and I was tortured. Fortunately, with the help of a... friend, we managed to escape. Just before I went here, the last battle raged back home. I was one of those in the front line. We lost many," she explained. On some points of her explanation, she winced, remembering some unpleasant memories, particularly the memory of her torture, Dobby's death, and the Battle of Hogwarts. Luckily, before Boromir asked any question, Sam announced dinner.

* * *

To others, Legolas might appear as if he was cleaning his knives attentively, but his mind was actually somewhere else. He had been thinking about that _mortal_ woman and _that_ incident. He remembered their first meeting. When he first laid his eyes on her, he could see the beauty she possessed. Her hair was perfectly volumed, her eyes were warm brown orbs, and her face was beautiful. Her beauty was different than any other maiden he had ever seen. Ever since that meeting, they grew close, being closer than friends, even closer than a brother and sister. And then _the _incident happened. Did all those mean he was falling for this woman? He looked up for a moment and accidentally caught her eyes. He was almost lost in her warm, questioning eyes, but he quickly looked away, and continued cleaning his knives. _No. Remember your promise to Ada. You must not let yourself fall for her. She is a mortal._

He listened as she walked around the place, mumbling various chants in a language he did not understand. _It was a combination of Westron and an old language called Latin, she once said_. He let his mind relaxed as he listened to her voice. Listening to her voice had always brought him peace, for the reason that he could not understand. Suddenly, a voice in the back of his mind said, _You promised Ada_. He mentally smacked his head and closed his eyes. Yes, his promise to Ada. He tried to tune out her voice as he heard Boromir approached the lady. _Another confrontation ahead?_

He shook his head. He must stop meddling with her affairs. Her confrontation with Boromir was none of his concern. Yes. None of his concern. He continued wiping his already cleaned knives even more furiously, until Aragorn, who was sitting next to him suddenly said, "Stop wiping them. If you wiped them a little more, I believe they will lose their sharpness instead, with that amount of power you poured."

Legolas didn't look up from his knives, and continued wiping as he stubbornly said to Aragorn, "They will not. They are Elf-made." His statement was met with a chuckle from the Ranger.

"You should not be that eager to test that theory. If they actually lost their sharpness, like what I said, what would you do?" the Ranger asked rhetorically. Legolas sulkily put away his twin knives. Silence engulfed the situation. Both Legolas and Aragorn waited for the other to start a conversation. They hadn't talked since their last argument when they were hiking down Caradhras. Aragorn suddenly walked to Legolas and asked him what he did to the mortal woman. What a preposterous question. He had done nothing to the woman. In fact, from this moment on, he didn't want to have anything to do with the woman. He must keep his promise to Ada.

He looked at the woman again. She was still talking to Boromir. From this point of view, Legolas could see her beautiful, sincere smile faded. _Maybe Ada will understand if I broke my promise. Wait, no. _"I promised."

"Hm?" asked Aragorn wordlessly. Legolas looked up at Aragorn's face and saw one of his eyebrows raised. "Nothing," replied Legolas quickly as he realised that he said the last two words aloud. The silence loomed over them again.

"Aragorn, _o gwairth 'wist_,_ man nauthach o hyn_?**[****1****]**" Legolas asked Aragorn, avoiding to look at him in the eye.

Aragorn didn't immediately answer. Legolas looked at him. His expression was unreadable. A frown marred his face, but his eyes were empty, as if he was so lost in his thinking. Suddenly, his eyes hardened and his expression turned murderous. "Aragorn?" called Legolas softly. Aragorn flinched a little before he looked back at Legolas with a mischievous smile on his face. "_Nostad dín sui yrch_**[****2****]**," he said, making Legolas laughed at his humour.

"_Am man pedich_?**[****3****]**" asked Aragorn. Legolas stopped laughing, smiled, and shrugged his shoulder, casually avoiding answering his question. Aragorn didn't seem to mind, as he stood up and walked to talk to Gandalf.

Beside the humour Aragorn bestowed to his answer, Legolas could see the hate in his eyes. He didn't like them. _Even Aragorn would not agree to break your promise to Ada._ Legolas sighed and smiled at the retrieving back of Aragorn. He had befriended him for more than fifty years, and had known him even a few years longer than that. He was a good man. Wise, noble, and righteous. Fortunately, he didn't have lust for power. Unfortunately, even more than that, he refused the power he one day would have to bear.

In a few moments, Legolas was bored again. Aragorn had gone to talk to Gandalf. Sam was cooking. Frodo was listening to Aragorn and Gandalf talking. Merry and Pippin were nowhere in sight. Gimli was... Gimli. He would not start a real conversation with the indignant Dwarf, even if he was paid all the fortune of Arda. Boromir and the mortal woman were talking. Or bickering? Well, who would know? Legolas was not interested in knowing. No. He definitely was NOT interested in knowing, or defending the mortal woman if it was indeed another debate they were having. NOT interested. He looked around and saw his bow. Ah! That was the object he needed. He started wiping his bow.

The next few minutes (Or hours? He didn't count the time) were uneventful, until Sam announced to everyone that dinner was ready. He sent a quick Elvish prayer for the animal that was slain by the Fellowship this time, and was really glad when Merry and Pippin suddenly appeared from the bushes carrying many mushrooms and fruits. They got scolded, of course, by Gandalf, for venturing without his knowledge, and by Sam, because he knew that Legolas's portion of food that he had cooked would be wasted. Gandalf scolded them throughout dinner, but Sam was easy to pacify. Merry and Pippin said that they would eat Legolas's portion of dinner, which he gladly trade with them for some of the fruits and mushrooms they collected, and Sam was glad again. "Not a waste, then," he said.

But not a few minutes after they started eating, Legolas's attention was inconveniently dragged to Boromir and Hermione, who were sitting next to each other. _The _'mortal woman'_. She was just another _mortal woman_. _Legolas thought to himself. He snapped back to reality and looked at them. They looked... friendly? They were not bickering. And, once again, they were sitting next to each other! That had never happened before during their journey. What was going on?

Apparently, Legolas was not the only one who thought about that. From the corner of his eyes, he could see everyone stole some glances towards Boromir and Herm... _the mortal woman_ whenever they were not looking. But Legolas was the only one bold enough to stare at them. He suddenly felt a negative emotion in his heart. What was that? Anger? He didn't actually know, but he was not happy with that.

The mortal woman didn't really look happy, although she seemed grateful to Sam for the food she received, as a nice and beautiful woman she was. _Stop there! _He tried to divert his attention to the hobbits, who were ravishing their food. Unluckily, Boromir attracted his attention again when he asked the woman, "How was the end of that war in your homeland?" Legolas just kept munching his fruit while he looked down and listened to their conversation.

"We won," she simply answered. Legolas smiled sadly. He remembered how the war was not her favourite topic of conversation. When they were in Rivendell, she and Legolas sometimes talked about her life in Wizarding World, but he always avoided talking about the war. They talked about the Triwizard Tournament one time, about the insufferable, pathetic boy named Draco Malfoy, about that sport she was not interested in that he could not remember the name, but not the war. That would bring her down.

"What would happen if you lost?" Boromir asked. Legolas could hear the woman stopped eating instantly. The clanging of her eating instruments stopped and she went silent. His head quickly snapped up to look at her face. Her face was full of sorrow and horror. His heart was torn when he saw her expression.

"Bad things," she answered. Her tone of voice and the expression on her face clearly gave away the fact that she did not agree with his choice of conversation subject.

"Bad things? Like what?" he insisted on asking. By this time, her face had turned pale. Legolas's blood boiled. Boromir might have befriended the woman now, but he should know when to stop pushing her for answer during a conversation like this. "That's enough." The Fellowship's eyes, excluding the woman's, instantly fell on Legolas, but he didn't care. He was busy pacing his breath to avoid exploding from anger.

"Can you not see that she does not want to talk about that?" snapped Legolas at Boromir. Boromir's shock was written all over his face, but in a second, he schooled his feature.

"And can you not eavesdrop on others' conversations, Master Elf?" Boromir retorted. "Or did your father not tell you that it was impolite and improper?" he continued with venom in his voice.

"I did not eavesdrop. I _overheard. _You talked too loud," Legolas said to Boromir with cold voice.

"I see no difference," replied Boromir. "The said conversation was not concerning you, so I would like to continue my conversation with Hermione, if you do not mind, Master Elf."

Legolas stood up in anger. "The woman did not seem to like where the conversation was going, Son of Steward." To his surprise, before Boromir retorted back, the woman beside him scoffed loudly, attracting his attention.

"_The woman_?" she asked disbelievingly. She stood up in an anger that might outmatch Legolas. "_The woman_?! What the bloody hell is wrong with you? First, you ignored me, then when you decided _not_ to ignore me anymore, you call me _the woman_? Who am I? Irene Bloody Adler? Blimey, is my name that hard to pronounce? Or maybe you think my name is not worthy to be said by your royal tongue? If it was Malfoy who said that, I wouldn't budge. Hell, I'd cheer! It was much better than 'Mudblood'. But _you_? I never thought you would ever disrespect me like this. You... Ugh! YOU GIT!" She shout as she walked around the fire to Legolas and then prodded her forefinger on his chest. After screaming the last two words, she stomped away from the Fellowship and said, "I'm sorry, Sam, I cannot finish eating the delightful meal you prepared for me. There is an insufferable git in the circle that made my appetite went... poofed!" The last word was shouted loud enough to make it annoying instead of amusing.

Legolas could not believe the woman. There he was, telling the insolent 'Son of Steward' not to upset her, but she got mad at him instead. He saw Aragorn stood up to talk to him, probably to scold him like the woman did before. He had been on the woman's 'side' since they were going down the mountain. He lifted his arm to stop him and closed his eyes. He did not want to burst out to his brother in all but blood. When he opened his eyes, he could see Aragorn scowled at him and shook his head as he walked away to calm the woman down.

This dinner is definitely the worse that had ever happen during the journey so far.

* * *

"AAAAAAAARRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!" screamed Hermione after she was sure that she was far enough from the Fellowship and casted Muffliato around her. She couldn't understand what happened that day. Boromir, who was the one who had been insufferable since they were in Rivendell, had suddenly turned nice, and Legolas, who was the closest to her, had turned insufferable. It seemed as if her world had been turned upside down. Her friend became her enemy, and her enemy became her friend.

After the scream, her head started to cool down. She paced her breathing and felt the anger subdued. Legolas, after all, was trying to get Boromir stopped being insensitive. But she still couldn't accept being called _the woman_.

"Hermione?" she heard someone called behind her. She turned around and saw the figure of a panting Aragorn. "Are you alright?" he asked. Hermione could see the pure and sincere concern in his eyes. Bless the Ranger. He always knew.

Hermione smiled at brother figure in front of her. "I am now. I'm just confused. I feel like the world is turned upside down all of a sudden. I will be fine."

The scruffy ranger smiled back at her and said, "Please forgive Legolas. He hasn't been acting like himself. I have been his..."

"Friend for more than fifty years. I know," cut Hermione with a light chuckle. She started to believe that this is his favourite tagline. Every time they talked about Legolas, this line would make its appearances, at least once each conversation.

"Yes, and he has never behaved like this. Please just see it this way; he called you that because you are special to him. He has... _had_ never called any maiden '_the_ woman' before," he continued, giving more pressure on the word '_the_' to emphasise his meaning that she was special to Legolas. _Wait. Special to him? Special like... what? _she thought as an alien feeling bloomed in her heart. She just nodded at Aragorn to answer his request, and the man smiled as he said to her, "We should get back to camp immediately. It is a dangerous land, and this place is quite far from the camp."

Hermione looked around, and realised that she could not see even a glimpse of the campfire. She was surprised to know that she had walked really far from the camp. She looked back at Aragorn and grinned. "Immediately? I know the fastest way to get back to the camp," she said with a mischievous glint in her eyes, and Aragorn raised his eyebrow.

"Take my hand," she said as she gave her hand to Aragorn and he took it. "A little bit of warning, people usually vomit after the first time." She could see the confused look on Aragorn's face, and smirked. Before Aragorn raised even a question to her, she apparated back to the camp, appearing right in front of the fire.

True to her word, the minute Aragorn landed his two feet on the ground, he fled from the fire and pour out the dinner he ate a few metres from the Fellowship. She laughed lightly as she looked at the shocked faces of the Fellowship. The only who was not shocked was Gandalf. This was definitely an amusing sight.

* * *

**[1] Translated to: "About those who break their promises, what do you think of them?" It was clear that he asked that to ask Aragorn if it was okay if he broke his promise to his Ada (father in Sindarin). The problem is, he forgot that the phrase '_gwairth 'wist_' when translated literally, could also mean 'oath-betrayers' or 'oath-breakers'. Aragorn, as the heir of Isildur, knew of the oath-breakers who lived (or should we say, died and stayed) in the Path of the Dead, and immediately thought of them. Naturally, his answer was irrelevant to Legolas's question. But another problem that followed was that Legolas didn't know that Aragorn didn't quite understand his question and thought that Aragorn really had answered his question. Tadaaa...**

**[2] Translated to: "They smelled like orcs." As I said in the previous point, his answer was irrelevant to the question.**

**[3] Translated to: "Why did you ask?" Literally, it would mean, "Why did you say that?" but the difference was not that much, eh? :D**

* * *

**A/N: So, what was Legolas's promise to his Ada? I know that some of you have guessed and I think you would have guessed right. It was quite clear in the story and easy to deduce. Now don't get all angry on him or Thranduil. Thranduil had his reason when he made Legolas promised him that, and Legolas, a noble Elf he was, would think of his promise as an oath he couldn't break. It will all be explained more properly in later chapter. :) And I'm sorry if you find it uncomfortable when I put the translation on the bottom of the chapter. I wouldn't be able to explain those points if I made them embedded in the story. I'm also sorry if you find the translation was wrong. I spent about three hours just for translating those three lines. I tried my best to learn Sindarin by doing research in the last few months, but my Sindarin is still not perfect. :(**


	8. Chapter 8 The Promise

**Disclaimer: If I owned the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, I would be filthy rich by now. But I am not filthy rich, so in conclusion, I do not own the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, their characters, and the recognisable conversations coming from the books or movies.**

* * *

**Chapter 8: The Promise**

"Frodo, come and help an old man," Legolas heard Gandalf said to Frodo. He wanted to smile or raised an eyebrow, since he found his request amusing. Gandalf? An old man? Well, he was, indeed, but he was no ordinary old man. He was everything but weak. But Legolas couldn't bring himself to either smile or raised his eyebrow. Not after what happened this dawn and what he had seen all day long.

This dawn, the Fellowship was awakened by a loud wail (Hermione said that meant some of her enchantments worked and some didn't), and a few minutes after that, the wargs attack their camp. The fight was brief, but Hermione was almost killed because of him.

_Legolas was fighting a persistent warg with an orc perched on its back. His twin silver knives were flashing in a blur. He slashed at one of the warg's legs and it wailed before it fell. That was the third leg he cut and each legs had been cut more than once. Legolas smirked at his work and stabbed its rider. _Orcs. Disgusting, vile, stupid creatures. _he thought as the orc fell of the warg's back and he stabbed the warg in the head, killing it._

_He looked around and saw Aragorn in trouble, so he made to run to help his friend. Just after a few steps, a hobbit's voice rang loudly on the field, calling his name. He searched for its owner, but before his eyes found him, he saw a rider less warg in the air, only a little more than a yard away from him, snarling at him. In less than a second, a warg was going to rip him apart, but he was not going to die without a fight. He was ready and his twin knives flashed under the light of the rising sun. Imagine his shock when a red light struck the warg and the warg just fell on the ground. Legolas was fortunate. He moved away just in time, so that he was not crushed by the warg's body, and it fell next to him instead on him. He wasn't sure if the warg was dead or not, but he couldn't take risk, so he stabbed the warg._

_The red light could only mean one thing. Hermione had saved him. Yes, Hermione. Aragorn had scolded him last night because he called Hermione 'the woman'. He said it was extremely rude, immature, and unregal of him. He reminded him of how he was a crown prince of a big Elven land and he was not supposed to act like that. After being stubborn and a lot of argument with Aragorn, Legolas finally relented and agreed that he was the one at fault. He planned to apologise to Hermione the next morning, _this_ morning, but the attack happened first._

_He looked at Hermione, who was quite far from him that time and saw her nodded at him. He nodded back. Just when he was about to turn around to help Aragorn, who was on the other side of the field from Hermione, he saw a warg running towards her. It was now less than ten metres away from her. Legolas' body trembled in anger. How dare it come near her! He ran towards Hermione, but he was not fast enough. The warg pounded on her when he was still one or two metres away._

_If he was angry before, he was now beyond furious. That vile thing would not kill Hermione. Not _his_ Hermione. Not in his watch. He let his anger __fueled__ him, making him ran faster to the warg, and in a second, one of his long knives was already embedded on the warg's heart. He pushed the warg away and quickly cradled the unconscious Hermione, who was trapped under the warg before he pushed it away. He thanked the Valar, because the warg hadn't hurt her before he arrived, and prayed for Hermione to wake up soon. She did._

As Legolas recounted that dawn's event, he mentally scolded himself. One, because of him, she was almost killed. If only he was aware of the coming warg, if only she was not distracted, she wouldn't be in any danger. Two, he was only a step away from breaking his promise to his Ada. He remembered how he mentally addressed her as _his_. No, he must not break his promise to Ada. He still remembered that time when he made the promise to Ada. It was about five hundred years ago.

_Legolas shot another arrow from his bow. It killed its target. An orc. There was another wave of orcs attack in Mirkwood, and this time, they were so many, with a sorcerer on the lead. The Elves had so much trouble defeating them, and King Thranduil himself finally joined his generals and lieutenants in battlefield. He assigned Legolas to stay on the branches of a tree to act as a cover for those who fought with blades on the ground._

_Legolas watched as his Ada and many other Elven warriors killed the orcs mercilessly and he couldn't help to smirk. Orcs were disgusting creatures, created as a mockery to the race of Eldar. They deserved to be killed mercilessly, like this. Victory was near, and now, only one or two orcs left and the sorcerer remained. He shot another arrow to another orc who was trying to attack his Ada. It hit, but as the arrow pierced the orc, he felt a force knocked him off the tree, and he fell on the ground with a loud thud, right next to the sorcerer's feet._

"Daro_ (Halt)!" he heard his Ada commanded as the sorcerer put a blade on Legolas' neck. He took a short glance towards his Ada and __Legolas__ could see the desperation in his eyes. Ada had just lost Naneth a few years ago, to another big wave of attack. She was walking in the woods alone at the time when a band of orcs __suddenly __appeared and killed her._

_He heard the sorcerer laughed coldly. "You don't want me to kill your only son, do you?"_

_Legolas couldn't see his Ada, and his Ada didn't answer, but he knew what his answer would be. He closed his eyes as his heart was torn. His Ada would do anything to make sure the sorcerer didn't kill him, even if it meant he lost his kingdom. One part of his heart rejoiced, because his Ada loved him, but his heart also felt great sadness, because he loved Mirkwood with his whole heart. If his death meant his kingdom was saved, then so be it. He would pass in peace._

_Legolas looked at the sorcerer defiantly, and was really shocked when the sorcerer lifted up his blade and sneered at him. "I don't have to kill you," he said. Legolas frowned. His tone definitely said that he still had something else to say in mind and the smirk on his face showed that it was not good._

_True to Legolas' thought, the sorcerer's next words were, "You are going to kill yourself in grief over a mortal." Then he laughed._

_Legolas' eyes widened and he looked at his Ada. He watched as his face paled. "He is not. You will lift that curse you casted over him," he said strongly, although it was clear in his face that he feared for that to happen._

"_That is no curse," he laughed evilly. "It is the future. He is going to fall for her, and die of grief when she died. I have foreseen it," replied the sorcerer._

"_You lied," his Ada said. The sorcerer didn't reply. He just laughed louder as he walked away with the only orc he had got left._

_Legolas stood up and ran to his Ada, as he watched his knees gave away and he knelt on the ground with a broken, blank expression on his face. When he reached his Ada, he knelt and shook his shoulders. "Ada," he called. His Ada focused his eyes on Legolas', and then started to cry as he held his son close. He couldn't bear the thought of losing his only son and child, especially after he lost his wife._

"_Promise me you won't leave me," he heard his Ada said over his shoulder._

"_Yes, Ada. I promise," he answered._

"_Promise me you won't fall for a mortal," his Ada said again. And he promised._

Ever since Legolas promised that to his Ada, his Ada started to arrange meetings with _ellith_ from various countries. It was very annoying for Legolas' part, but he understood why his Ada did that. He didn't want Legolas to fall for a mortal, so he made sure Legolas fell for an _elleth_ first. Unlike Men, their love is forever. Once he fell in love with an _elleth_, he wouldn't fall for anyone else, _elleth, _woman, or Maia. The only problem was, Legolas hadn't fallen for any _elleth _before.

He was dragged out of his stupor when he felt an arm on his shoulder. He looked at the pair of concerned gray eyes in front of him. "Legolas, _le maer _(are you alright)?" asked Aragorn. Legolas smiled at him and nodded. "Come," Aragorn said. "The others are already ahead."

Legolas followed Aragorn and caught up with the other members of the Fellowship only to be greeted by the sight he had been scowling upon since that morning. Hermione was walking next to Boromir, and they were talking and sometimes even laughing. They were so close, too close for his liking. The only other people Hermione had been that close with were Aragorn and himself. He stopped walking. He felt a familiar surge of anger that he had been feeling in his heart since that morning and looked away as he wondered, had he broken his promise to Ada?

* * *

Hermione was telling the tale of the Amazing Bouncing Ferret to Boromir and laughed with him. Despite their initial extended rivalry, he was actually nice if you had earned his respect. He was still insensitive and pessimist, though. Sometimes he would ask about the war and didn't even notice that she was upset every time he asked about it. That had never happened when she was talking to Legolas.

Legolas. That blasted bloke. _Elf, I meant. _He was still ignoring her. Yes, he did apologise for calling her 'the woman' that afternoon, and she forgave him **[1]**, despite his weird way to do that. He said sorry about that and then he mumbled various compounds of incoherent words before he finally shook his head and walked away. She managed to catch the words 'promise', 'add', and more 'sorry's but she couldn't understand what he said. But after and before that, he just ignored her or avoided talking to her, like what he did in the last few days. She took a glance at Legolas from the corner of her eyes. He was walking next to Aragorn and was scowling at Hermione and Boromir, again, before he looked away. He had been doing that since that morning. Hermione frowned. _What exactly is his problem?_

"What is that?" asked Boromir quietly to Hermione. Hermione looked at Boromir and followed the line of his vision. The fog was so thick ahead, but she still could see some shape. It looked like some kind of wall. A tall one. Hermione shook her head to answer Boromir's question. Quietly, Boromir walked ahead to have a better look at the wall faraway. He walked past Gandalf and Frodo, who were talking quietly, and as he did that, their heads slowly turned to him.

A gasp behind her grabbed Hermione's attention. She turned her head and saw Gimli looked ahead in awe. "The Walls of Moria," he announced. Oh. That was what Boromir and Hermione saw. Deep in her heart, Hermione rejoiced, because they would soon have a good rest. That was, if what Gimli had been boasting about Moria all the time was true.

* * *

After a long time of walking, Gandalf asked the whole Fellowship to help him find the doors. Yes, they have reached the place where the doors of Moria supposedly were. The problem was, the night had fallen and they hadn't found the doors yet. The whole Fellowship started to scan the wall more thoroughly as they walked past it. To make it easier for herself, Hermione lit up her wand and started searching with the help of the light.

"Dwarf doors are invisible when closed," said Gimli proudly. Hermione rolled her eyes. Yes, invisible doors were useful for those _inside_ the doors. But for those _outside_ the doors, searching for them felt like hell.

"Yes, Gimli. Their own masters cannot find them if their secrets are forgotten," Gandalf said. _My thought exactly. _said Hermione in her mind.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" asked Legolas rhetorically. As a reply, Gimli sighed and shook his head. Hermione noted the unusual bitterness in Legolas' voice and she suddenly remembered the scowl he had been sporting since that morning. She also remembered a time, not long after they started walking that afternoon, after lunch break, when Legolas and Gimli had a fight over some unimportant thing. Legolas even drew his twin knives. During their journey, she had seen the pair debated over various things, or threw insults on each other, but they never fought. For the sake of the Fellowship, they never did. But that morning, they did. She wondered what had caused Legolas' terrible mood and behaviour that day.

"Well, let's see," Gandalf said suddenly. He moved his hand around an area of the wall, inspecting it, before he said, "_Ithildin_. It mirrors only starlight and moonlight." All of the Fellowship turned their heads to look at the sky, and watched as the clouds moved and uncovered the moon. Hermione suspected it was Gandalf's doing.

As the moon was uncovered, a part of the wall that Gandalf inspected before glowed, forming an image of some kind of doors. It had writings in Elvish that Hermione couldn't understand. "What do you suppose that means?" she asked.

"It reads, 'The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter.'" answered Gandalf. His staff hit the engravings multiple time as he translated them word by word.

"What do you suppose that means?" asked Merry. Hermione smiled as she noticed that he asked the exactly same question she asked before, but in a totally different context. Earlier, she asked for the translation of the writings. Now, he asked about the real meaning of the writings.

"Well, it's quite simple," Gandalf said. "If you are a friend, you speak the password and the doors will open." That reminded Hermione of Hogwarts. The same or at least similar method was used to secure the door to Gryffindor Tower, and maybe the other houses except Ravenclaw **[2]**. She remembered Luna said that the entrance to Ravenclaw's house would only open to those who could answer the riddle it asked them.

Gandalf then started working on opening the door. He put his staff on the doors and used his magic while his voice boomed, "_Annon edhellen, edro hi ammen._ (Elvish gate, open now for us.)" Nothing happened. He then lifted up his arms and staff and tried another line, "_Fennas nogothrim, lasto beth lammen_! (Doorway of the Dwarf-folk, listen to the word of my tongue.)" Still, nothing happened. The doors did not open, there was no sound, nothing.

"Nothing's happening," she heard Pippin said behind her. Hermione rolled her eyes, but smiled anyway. He definitely had the talent to state the obvious.

Gandalf tried one or two more lines before he resorted to physical works and tried to push or pry the doors open. But still, nothing happened. "I once knew every spell in the tongues of Elves, Men, and Orcs," he muttered thoughtfully, rather to himself.

"What are you going to do, then?" Pippin said, and Hermione closed her eyes. He was asking for death. Interrupting Gandalf when he was thinking never ended well. The least that would happen would be his anger. But the worst that could happen would be his spell. Hermione made that mistake once when she was in Rivendell. She interrupted Gandalf's train of thoughts, and she got scolded harshly. He apologised after that, saying that he did that often, and it was best if she avoided interrupting his thoughts. It was a luck that he was thinking about something unimportant. If she interrupted some important train of thoughts, according to Aragorn, he might turn her into a toad. She didn't actually believe Aragorn, because of the mischievous glint in his eyes when he said that, but she would never be so eager to test the truth of his words.

This time, Gandalf only snapped back at Pippin, "Knock your head on these doors, Peregrin Took!" Hermione looked at Aragorn, and saw him mouthed to her with a smirk, "He's lucky." Hermione shrugged as she heard Gandalf continued, "And if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed a little peace from foolish questions," he then calmed down and his expression went back to a tired one before he said, "I will try to find the opening words."

"May I try?" Hermione asked. She could felt all of the Fellowship's eyes stared at her as Gandalf beckoned her to go ahead and she walked towards the door. She pointed her wand at the door and said, "_Alohomora_." But just like all of Gandalf's prior effort, it failed, and nothing happened. Hermione sighed and said, "Well, that is worth a try."

She walked away and sat next to Gimli on a rock, facing the pond, as Gandalf went back to trying to open the doors with his spells. She pondered on the possible opening words. According to her experience, passwords were usually words or phrase that had a special meaning to the community or person who asked for the password. For quite a long time, she conversed with Gimli, asking about words that had special meaning to Dwarfs, or to his cousin in particular, but when she tried them, all the phrases Gimli told her didn't open the doors.

Hermione sighed. Now she knew how Neville felt when he forgot the password to Gryffindor common room. If only there were clues on what the opening words were. Wait. What if this wasn't like Gryffindor common room, but more like Ravenclaw's? What if these doors didn't just ask for a password? What if the doors had given them the clues they needed, just like the riddles on the entrance of the Ravenclaw common room? All this time, she had focused on _guessing_ the opening words, but what if what they had to do was to _analyse_ those insciption to find the opening words?

A muffled clang brought Hermione back from reality. She turned to look at the source of the voice and heard Gandalf said, "Oh, it's useless." His staff was already on the ground. He sat down on a nearby rock and pouted there.

"What if it's a riddle?" Hermione voiced the conclusion of her earlier train of thoughts to Gandalf and Frodo, the only people beside Hermione who were still pondering on the opening words. Gimli had already left her side after Hermione tried the twentieth phrase he gave her. Hermione didn't count, but Gimli said it was the twentieth already, and she believed him.

Gandalf didn't seem to get what she meant, but Frodo did. He stood up with an enlightened expression on his face. "Speak 'friend' and enter," he said, trying another variant of interpretation of the sentence. "What is the Elvish word for friend?" he asked. "_Mellon_," replied Gandalf, successfully attracting the attention of the whole Fellowship when the doors opened. Gandalf chuckled delightedly and quickly put a rock on the tip of his staff while he went in. The Fellowship followed instantly.

While she walked inside the doors, Hermione looked around to see what she had missed during her thinking session. Apparently, she didn't miss much. She noticed nothing beside the lack of a pony and Sam's sad expression. Bill had been sent home then. Good. She was surprised enough that the pony managed to get through the Caradhras incident. She had a feeling that at some point in the future, the condition would get even more dangerous.

As soon as the whole Fellowship entered, Gimli started boasting about Moria again. "Soon, Master Elf, you will enjoy the fabled hospitality of the Dwarfs," he said. Hermione could see that the Elf he was talking to didn't pay attention to what he was saying at all. He was busy looking around the entrance hall. "Roaring fires, malt beer, ripe meat off the bone! This, my friend, is the house of my..." Hermione didn't follow the rest of the sentence, because Gandalf had lit his staff and in the dim light of Gandalf's staff, she could make out some shapes laying on the ground and on the steps of stairs. They didn't look good.

"_Lumos_," she whispered, and then she pointed her wand down to light the ground. There were skeletons. Many skeletons. Judging their size, many of these skeletons were Dwarfs when they were alive. Gimli was too happy to notice that Moria had fallen.

"This is no mine," she heard Boromir said next to her. "This is a tomb."

As soon as Boromir said that, Gimli's chatter stopped. "No!" he roared mournfully as he finally noticed his kin's overly rotten bodies laying lifelessly on the ground. Legolas crouched and pulled an arrow from a nearby skeleton and inspected it. "Goblins," he said. _Goblins? _she thought. In her mind, she was picturing the short, dwarf-like creatures with ugly expression and bad temper who worked in Gringotts. Could they even use bow? Judging the others' reaction (they instantly drew their swords or nocked an arrow in Legolas' case), apparently, in Middle Earth, goblins do use bow. Hermione put her wand in her sleeves and pulled out her sword. Just like that morning, when the wargs attacked them, Hermione used her sword as her primary weapon, and her magic was only used as her last resort.

"We make for the Gap of Rohan. We should never have come here." said Boromir to Aragorn. Hermione was inclined to agree. Anything was better than the path with a hundred percent certainty of battling the enemy. "Now, get out of here. Get out!" he shouted to the whole Fellowship.

Hermione turned around and watched as Frodo slumped to the ground before the hobbits even turned around to leave the place. For a split of second, Hermione didn't think something bad happened. That was until Frodo was dragged out of the mine by something Hermione couldn't see. The other hobbits were in the line of her vision.

Before the hobbits even shouted for help, Hermione ran out to help Frodo. She shoved them away to give her a space to get through as they shouted for help. Now she could see the tentacle that had grabbed Frodo's foot. Shouts like "Frodo!" and "Help!" were in the background as she held Frodo tightly. The other hobbits quickly followed her example.

"Strider!" she heard Sam shouted before he started hacking angrily at the tentacle with his short sword. "Get off him!" he shouted at the tentacle. Before Aragorn came to help, Sam had already cut the tentacle off, and they quickly pulled Frodo as far as they could from the pond. Hermione watched in relief as the tentacle was pulled inside the pond. But all the relief she felt was gone in a second when half a dozen giant tentacles sprung out of the water and pushed everyone away from Frodo before one of the tentacles encircled Frodo's foot again and pulled him until he was hanging in the air.

Hermione quickly put her sword away and pulled out her wand from her sleeves as Legolas shot his arrow and Aragorn battled another tentacle. "_Diffindo_!" she shouted after she aimed at the tentacle who was hanging Frodo on his foot. Her spell hit, but the tentacle didn't let Frodo go. As she aimed again, she felt something on her foot, and before she knew it, she was already in the air, hanging from her foot, screaming. Again, she was glad she wasn't wearing a dress. Hermione tried to aim a spell at the tentacles again, but it was really hard to do when one of the tentacles was waving her around like a flag.

The next second, the tentacles stopped moving and the owner of the tentacles finally emerged his face. It was a giant, black face with tentacles all around his head with two eyes, one mouth, and no nose. In short, this was how Voldemort would look like if his head had grown into giant size, was painted black, and had tentacles all around it. It opened his mouth as someone cut off the tentacle that was holding Frodo's foot. The creature closed his mouth and another tentacle caught Frodo, who was free-falling at the time. The next second, someone else cut that tentacle and Frodo fell into someone's hold. _Good. Frodo's safe._

But the next problem is, although Frodo had been released, Hermione hadn't. She heard whizzing of arrows released in a furious speed. Some of the arrows hit the tentacle holding Hermione's foot, and the tentacle stretched out, pulling Hermione away from the creature's mouth for a second. Hermione quickly pointed her wand at the face and shouted loudly, "_Sectumsempra_!" She didn't like the spell, but in this condition, the spell was the most effective. The tentacle quickly released Hermione to tend the heavily wounded face of the creature, and a pair of strong arms caught Hermione. She looked at her rescuer's face and saw Legolas.

"Into the mines!" she heard Gandalf shouted. Legolas ran towards the doors, carrying Hermione in his arms, and as he reached the ground, she saw and heard Aragorn shouted at Legolas and pointed at the creature behind them. Legolas put Hermione down and quickly shot an arrow at the creature's face, making it fell behind for a second. After that, he took Hermione's arm and pulled her inside the cave. The others were already inside.

Just after they ran a few metres past the doors, Hermione heard rumbling behind her. She turned her head as she ran and saw the creature trying to close the door, but instead of the doors being closed, the whole entrance crumbled down, trapping them inside the mines with darkness.

Hermione whispered, "_Lumos_," and at the same time, Gandalf lit his staff. "We now have but one choice," he said. "We must face the long dark of Moria," he continued as he walked past the Fellowship to lead them in the front. "Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world." As they climbed a stair, Gandalf said again, "Quietly now. It's a four day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence may go unnoticed."

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**[1] I made a little change here. The first time I posted it, it was: "_She forgave her," _which was definitely wrong. A huge thanks to sunriseWILLcome for correcting me. :D**

**[2] Actually, beside the Gryffindor tower, the only house that required a password was the Slytherin dungeon. The entrance to the Hufflepuff basement required the student to tap a certain barrel with a certain rhythm. I consider it similar to the Gryffindor and Slytherin houses' entrance, because like a password, the rhythm was only known to the member of the house. The Ravenclaw tower's entrance used a completely different method. Its knocker would ask a riddle to the student, and if the student was smart enough to answer it correctly, the door would open.**

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**A/N: So the end of my term break is getting near, and so is the hiatus I 'promised' in my profile. I hope I could write one or two more chapter before the term started, but I can't promise you. So just in case I couldn't finish another chapter before the hiatus started, I'll see you guys in January. :D**

**PS: It seemed that I have forgotten to explain that Ada meant 'father' in Sindarin, and because of that, I have caused confusion for some of my readers who does not learn Sindarin. Sorry. :( ****Thanks a lot to Reader-anonymous-writer for reminding me. :D(y) Updated on 10 September 2012.**


	9. Chapter 9 In the Darkness of Moria

**Disclaimer: I do not own many things. Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings, both games, books and movies, the characters and the recognisabled conversations were only examples of those things. They belong to their respective owners. The games have nothing to do with this story, by the way. I just feel like adding it. :D**

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**A/N: I know I said that this story is in hiatus until late December or early January, but I also wrote that I might be able to post a chapter or two during the hiatus if I could. So this is your early chapter. I managed to write this bit by bit between the harsh campus life and crazy amount of assignments. By the way, this is the first chapter where I used multiple points of view in a same section. I usually put a section break every time I change the point of view, but in this chapter, it was so often. I couldn't put a section break every one paragraph, so this is how it became. I'm sorry if it confused you. I tried my best to not change the point of view, but there were things that could be better explained in someone else's point of view. And another 'by the way', this also is the first time I tried to get into Sam and Gimli's heads. :D**

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**Chapter 9: In the Darkness of Moria**

Hermione took the rear of the Fellowship while Gandalf took the front, each of them bore light for the whole Fellowship. They walked quietly on the one-way, narrow passage. The sombre of the situation was thick. Even Merry and Pippin didn't make that much merry banters like they usually did before the Fellowship entered Moria, although that was mostly because they were afraid if they quarelled that much, one of them might get thrown off the narrow passage accidentally, into the dark chasm below them.

After a long walk, the bridge-like passage turned into a cliffside-like one. On their left, there was a high wall, and on their right, there was nothing. The narrow passage now got even narrower. One wrong step, and one of them would fall into the darkness. Suddenly, the Fellowship stopped. Hermione couldn't see what Gandalf did, but Hermione could hear what he said. "The wealth of Moria was not in gold, or jewels, but mithril."

Hermione almost asked what mithril was, but the glow coming from inside the deep of the chasm beside them answered her. It seemed that Gandalf had strengthened the light coming from his staff to light the chasm, and the metal on the walls of the chasm reflected the light. Mithril, it turned out, was a kind of precious metal, and it was as beautiful as gold and silver, if not more. The light coming from Gandalf faded just before Hermione heard Gandalf said, "Bilbo had a shirt of mithril rings that Thorin gave him."

"Oh, that was a kingly gift," responded Gimli immediately.

"Yes," said Gandalf. "I never told him, but its worth was greater than the value of the Shire." Hermione's eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Bilbo was a very humble hobbit. No one would have guessed that he owned something that worth more than a country, even though he didn't even know about the thing's worth.

"I wonder if he wears it," Hermione mumbled to herself, although the whole Fellowship could actually heard her, with that silence that overwhelmed the mines and the echoes. Her words were met with a chuckle from Gandalf.

"I doubt that, Miss Hermione," he said. "It is probably now hung as an exhibit in Michel Delving, a hole where the hobbits of the Shire keep things they deemed unimportant."

An expected scoff came from Gimli. "What a waste!"

"It is. But then again, if someone gave me that shirt for safekeeping, I would definitely put it there. There is no safer place. The hobbits there are mostly too innocent to understand the worth of the shirt (no offence to the inhabitants of the place), and they tend to keep what happens in their country, in their country," replied Gandalf. Hermione nodded as she got the logic of what he said.

Because of the discussion, the whole Fellowship missed the shocked expression in Frodo's face when he realised the worth of the shirt hiding behind his vest.

* * *

Hermione rummaged through her bag. She was unexceptionally bored. They had been sitting there for hours now, or at least it felt like hours for Hermione. There were three gateways in front of them, and Gandalf couldn't remember which one they should take to get to the other side of Moria.

Hermione didn't expect to find anything interesting in her bag, but she finally did. What she finally pulled out of her bag was a leather-bound book with Elvish engravings on a metal plate on the front cover of the book. Her father's book. Merlin's book. She opened it and started reading.

She never thought that she would ever be in Merlin's head, and she always thought that it would be fantastic to know the way he thought. But after he read the book, which turned out to be a kind of diary of Merlin since after his Hogwarts graduation, she found out that the legend was not always true. Merlin was smart. That part of the legend was right. But he was, at least at the beginning, just a simple wizard who tried to live up to what people expect him to be, with his namesake and lineage (Who would've thought that there were two great Merlins in history, and she was descended from both?)**[1]**. The closest thing he had to an ambition was his dream to be 'the inventor of the greatest spell ever existed'.

Someone sat next to Hermione. She didn't need to look up from her book, but she knew that it was Legolas. The one person she now could understand the least. Even Boromir, who had befriended her only since a few days ago, was easier to understand. She remembered when he saved her life back at the gates of Moria, and when she woke up on his lap after she passed out in the warg attack just yesterday. He seemed as if he cared a lot about her those times, but at other times, he just ignored her, as if he couldn't care less about her. His drastic changes in behaviour really confused Hermione.

Hermione tried to keep on reading, since Legolas didn't speak a word, but she everytime she read a line, she got distracted by his fidgetting. She finally got frustrated after she read the line "I met Father Christmas today in a snow-filled world.**[2]**" for about the tenth time, and closed the book. She looked at Legolas and raised one of her eyebrows. "What do you want to say now?" she said rather sharply.

Legolas sat even more uncomfortably on the rock and looked around frantically while he tried to look annoyed. "Who said I was going to say anything? I just wanted to sit on this particular rock," he snapped unconvincingly. Hermione raised both her eyebrows now and nodded sarcastically. "Riiight. That must be why you kept fidgetting on your _particular_ rock."

Hermione didn't continue talking, and so did Legolas, so she put her book back in her bag and straightened her body to get ready to get off the rock and walked about the place, but a hand stopped her as soon as her body was straightened. "Wait," Legolas said. Hermione smiled and stated, "So you _do_ want to talk." Legolas seemed to hesitate a bit before he finally nodded and Hermione looked up at his face expectantly, making Legolas seemed even more uncomfortable.

* * *

Legolas never thought that asking Hermione if the Watcher hurt her would be that hard. He hadn't talked to her for quite some time now. Something inside him kept reminding him that he must not taunt himself to break his promise to Ada, but deep inside his heart, he longed to know if she was alright. Right now, the said woman was staring at him, waiting for him to start talking, and he knew that he couldn't dodge asking her again, since he had stopped her from walking away from that place just a few moments ago. He sighed and finally asked, "Are you hurt?"

Hermione chuckled a little and answered, "Thankfully, no. The Watched had done no damage on me." After a few moments of reconsiderating, she finally added, "Not the ones a simple healing spell couldn't fix, at least." Legolas felt really relieved at her words, and he couldn't help to smile. Hermione looked shocked for a second, and then her lips curved into the warmest smile Legolas had ever seen. A sense of warmth washed over him, and for a moment, the dread feeling he had been feeling for being in a dark place for too long a time was gone.

But that feeling went as soon as it came when the smile on Hermione's smile faded and she looked away, to the darkness in front of them. "What happened to us?" she asked. Legolas didn't answer, but it appeared that Hermione took his silence in a wrong way. Her head snapped to his face with her eyes widened while she stuttered panickedly, "I-I mean, we-we used to be th-the best of friends."

Legolas chuckled and said, "My silence didn't mean like that. I understand what you meant." Hermione looked calmer and blinked. "Oh." Legolas smiled and shook his head and thought what he should answer her, but he couldn't find the right way to say it. Finally, he gave up and just said, "It's complicated."

Hermione frowned and knitted her eyebrows together. "Complicated? I just want to be your friend, that's all," As soon as those words were out of her lips, Hermione felt like she had just stab her heart with a knife. She couldn't understand why. What she said was true. She just wanted to be his friend. _Right?_

Hermione watched as Legolas' face went stoic, as if he was deep in his thoughts, before he finally said, "As I said, it is complicated. I do not expect you to understand." Hermione felt hurt, even more hurt than when Ron made her watched him snogging Lavender all over school. She could do nothing to answer him beside nodding half-heartedly.

An "Ah!" coming from Gandalf attracted the attention of all Fellowship. Hermione felt relieved to be free of the dread conversation. "It's that way," he said.

"He's remembered!" Hermione heard Merry said happily. Poor hobbits. They must have been really bored. Although she had been reading a lot when Gandalf was thinking, she could still hear Merry and Pippin when they changed their activities. From sitting around, talking, smoking, back to sitting around, bickering, talking again, smoking again, and so on, and so on.

"No," corrected Gandalf quickly before everyone in the Fellowship mistook him. "But the air doesn't smell so foul down here," he said as he stood at one of the three gateways in front of them and put on his hat. "If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose," he continued. Hermione smiled as she remembered the Golden Trio's first two years. Harry and Ron often said that their noses always 'guided them to the source of food'. They stopped saying that when they were in third year, because 'we've grown up'.**[3]**

The Fellowship started to line up behind Gandalf. Hermione lit up her wand again, since the tunnel they were about to take was dark enough, and then the Fellowship walked through the dark tunnel in silence again.

* * *

"Behold, the great realm and Dwarf-city of Dwarrowdelf," announced Gandalf after he amplified the light coming from the tip of his staff. Before the eyes of the Fellowship, stood the tallest, strongest, most intricated columns and arches they had ever seen, maybe for the exception of Gimli, who might have been there before. But even from Gimli's eyes, shone amazement and awe. Hermione must admit, she too was enchanted by the wonder of the place, but she realised that this beautiful place had lost the most important things: the people, and the happiness.

"There's an eye opener, and no mistake," muttered Sam. He had never thought that he would ever see something as grand as this before. He had never even thought he would ever leave the Shire. All his life he had spent gardening in Hobbiton, and all this time, he was content with it. Sometimes, he regretted the time when he decided to eavesdrop Gandalf and Mr Frodo's conversation back in Shire. But times like this, sights like this, and of course, his loyalty and love for his master, were the things that kept him from walking back to Rivendell and finally, the Shire.

The Fellowship walked between the pillars of Khazad-dûm as they imagine what the place looked like before it became the dull and dark place it was now. A thought flashed through Gimli's mind. _It should be near by now._ He looked around, and not a second after, he had located it. The Chamber of Mazarbul. The place where his cousin, Balin, ruled his domain. But Gimli didn't like what he saw. Not a bit. The doors were ajar, and there were corpses littering outside, and inside the doors. A light shone through the ceiling of the room, emphasising the tomb in the middle of the room. Gimli gasped and ran towards the room as he said to himself, "No." He could hear Gandalf called his name to stop him, but he didn't stop until he reached the tomb and stared at the inscription on it. It said, "_Balin Fundinul Uzbad Khazad-dûmu_" All this time, he still half-hoped he would find his cousin in one of these halls, dining with what remained of his dwarfs, or battling the orcs, or at least dying, waiting to see one of his families for one last time before he took his dying breath, but now, Gimli could see that his hope was lost. His cousin had died.

The whole Fellowship ran after Gimli and watched as the usually cheerful and strong dwarf they knew broke down in front of a tomb. They could already guessed who laid in the tomb, but Gandalf read the inscription on the tomb in Westron for them anyway. "Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria," he read. "He is dead, then," Gandalf said in a tired voice as he took off his hat in grief. "It's as I feared."

Hermione walked ahead and put her left hand on Gimli's shoulder. The grieving Dwarf put one of his hands on top of her hand as he cried. Hermione pulled out her wand and created a wrath on Balin's tomb. She might not know Balin, but hearing the grief in Gimli's cries tear her heart.

Gandalf looked around and spotted something. He walked towards it, gave his hat and staff to Pippin along the way, and took a book from the hand of a corpse of a Dwarf. Gandalf wiped and blew the dust off the book and opened it.

Hermione could hear Legolas said to Aragorn behind her, "We must move on. We cannot linger." In her heart, Hermione disagreed with him, but her rational mind agreed. As much as she wanted to give Gimli his time to mourn the loss of his dear cousin, they needed to leave the place as soon as they could. She somehow had a really bad feeling about staying in this place for too long. Hermione pulled her hand and patted Gimli's shoulder, then walked to stand nearer to Gandalf as Boromir took her place.

Gandalf started to read some of the important passages written in the book he picked. It sounded like some kind of journal. All of the Fellowship listened attentively with dread in their heart, as they found out what happened to this place. A sudden loud clang told the Fellowship that actually, not all of them were listening to Gandalf. Pippin, at one point of the story, had grown bored and found a fascination on a skeleton on a well. At first, it was just the skull that fell, but then the whole body followed. When the skeleton fell into the well, it dragged down a bucket with a chain, and fell on various rocks into the chasm under it, creating loud sound that would awaken the dark dwellers of the mines. The Fellowship could only waited for the sound to die down in grim.

"Fool of a Took!" Gandalf looked at Pippin with disdain as the clanging either died down or just went out of the Fellowship's hearing range. "Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!" And then Gandalf took his staff and hat back from Pippin's hands.

Suddenly...

_Boom._

The whole Fellowship freezed.

_Boom. Boom._

The sound of drums in the deep filled the minds of the Fellowship with dread.

_Boom. Boom. Boom._

It's unevitable now, there would be bloodshed.

_Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom._

They were coming with drums and weapons.

They could hear their roar now.

The creatures in the deep.

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**[1] Today was December 30, 2012, and I have reposted this chapter for a little bit of revision. I revised this part to suit my universe expansion to include BBC's **_**Merlin **_**in this series of stories, just as a background though. You won't find the Merlin in BBC's **_**Merlin**_** BAMF-ing in my stories. This revision is insignificant for this story, though. It affects my other story which will be mentioned in point [2]. By the way, this is also an opportunity to introduce my new one-shot that will explain this expansion, "Merlin and Merlin".**

**[2] The spin off of this story, "the Origin of Merlin's Horn" has been posted and deleted for revision. Why the revision? Read point [1]. :D By the way, it's such a self-explanatory title, right? It's a crossover of Harry Potter and another fantasy story I mentioned about in the story's summary, which some of you might have already guessed. In this spin-off story, Lord of the Rings will only be mentioned briefly instead. I actually have planned the appearance of this spin-off since before I started writing the first chapter, but I think it will be confusing if I posted the spin-off before I even mentioned it in the main story, savvy? *Capt. Sparrow mode***

**[3] Please note that even though I have read Harry Potter books, I have already forgotten most parts of the story that doesn't have anything to do with the main plot, and I only borrowed those books at the time because of the *cough* *cough* expensive books *cough* *cough*. So if they had never said that before in the books (I know they didn't say that in the movies, which I watch quite regularly), please just pretend that they did. Pretty please? :D**


	10. Chapter 10 Battle in Moria (1)

**Disclaimer: Anybody think I own Lord of the Rings, its awesome characters, books, and movies? Nobody? Good. Now, same question about Harry Potter. Nobody? Anybody? Nope? Good. 'Cause I do not own any of them. :D**

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**A/N: So, this is my first real chapter after I am back from hiatus. :D Unfortunately for you guys, during my hiatus, I was attracted to the fandom of this awesome TV series that had just ended for good on the last Christmas night. Yup. BBC's **_**Merlin**_**. It's just so awesome! 'Was', sorry. It WAS so awesome. (Not its ending, though. The ending was good enough, I think, but only just. I must admit it was disappointing that Arthur could only appreciate Merlin's magic in one episode, and only on the last two-three days of his life.) The implication of this fascination is that I lost most of the feel of this fandom. ("AAAAAA! Noooo!" screamed a part of me.) No worries, I still intended to finish this story. I have roughly planned how this story goes until it finishes, and it's still a looooong way ahead. I just need to apologise that the updates will be less often than the rate of updates I managed to keep in my last term break. I am now working on about three or four other stories outside this series of stories (which I am not going to post until the concepts are brewed properly), and "the Origin of Merlin's Horn", which is in the process of being revised. So, that's a lot. By the way, my rambling has gone long enough. Here's your chapter 10!**

**BTW, I cannot believe I forgot to put line breaks on this chapter and the revision of the previous chapter the first time I posted these. Even I was confused when I previewed them.**

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**Chapter 10: Battle in the Chamber of Mazarbul**

_They were coming with drums and weapons._

_They could hear their roar now._

_The creatures in the deep__._

"Mr. Frodo!"

Sam's exclamation attracted the attention of everyone in the chamber. They all quickly followed his line of vision. He was looking, and pointing, at Frodo's sword. Frodo instantly pulled Sting just slightly out of its scabbard, revealing its glow. It could only mean one thing. The goblins. They were close enough now.

The wailing coming right from that door was just another proof.

"Orcs!" Legolas hatefully exclaimed to the whole Fellowship.

Boromir quickly ran to the door to check how close those goblins were. He got his answer quite quickly. Right after he turned his head to check, two arrows almost impaled his head right on the face. Hermione winced when the image of her friend being impaled by arrows crossed her mind. After a few consideration, she decided to pulled out her wand instead of her sword this time. This will be a full-scale battle, she knew it. Unlike the warg attack during the journey, the amount of goblins they had to fight were unpredictable. It was better to fight in a manner she could do best.

Meanwhile, she could hear Aragorn shouted to the Hobbits, "Get back! Stay close to Gandalf!" It seemed that he had assumed the position of leader, or maybe he just felt responsible for them. He was, afterall, beside Gandalf, the one who had known the Hobbits the longest compared to the other members of the Fellowship. Gandalf readily herd the Hobbits to a more secluded part and stood protectively in front of the Hobbits.

After he gave the command, Aragorn quickly ran to help Boromir closed the doors. As the doors were closed, Hermione could hear Boromir said to Aragorn, "They have a cave troll." Hermione groaned. One troll is too many to be faced in a lifetime, and now she was going to fight her second troll. Wonderful. If only she could see Legolas' face that time, she would see a smile cracked on his face for a milisecond as he remembered that Hermione had once told him of how her encounter with a troll went.

Legolas passed Aragorn a few big axes, which were used to barricade the door. After that, they got back and readied their weapons. Boromir drew out his sword and readied his shield on his arm while Legolas and Aragorn nocked an arrow each on their bows. The others followed suit. Hermione lifted her wand arm while she could hear the sound of swords being pulled out of their scabbards.

DUG!

The enemies began pounding on the door. "Can't you do something, Miss Hermione?" she heard Pippin squeaked from behind Gandalf.

"No, Pippin. I can strengthen the door, but we would only be trapped here if I did," she said.

DUG!

"What about when you and Strider appeared back to camp? Can you do it again?" Merry asked.

"I can't take all of you at the same time," Hermione replied.

DUG!

The doors were ready to give away soon. Anyone could see that.

Suddenly, a roar was heard from Gimli as he jumped on the tomb of his cousin.

"Let them come! There is one Dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath," he exclaimed. Somehow, after hearing that, Hermione's spirit lifted. Gimli's persistence to avenge the deaths of his kin gave a spark of fire in the heart of the Fellowship. His spirit was contagious.

DUG! The last pound managed to make a hole on the door. Legolas didn't waste his chance. He shot an arrow, and bullseye, it hits. But the fallen orc was quickly replaced by another. Aragorn and Legolas then simultaneously shot their arrows through the hole. Hermione decided to hold her fires. What if her spell blasted the doors instead?

But her hesitation didn't make a big difference. The doors gave away just seconds after and goblins showered into the room. Legolas and Aragorn still fired arrows after arrows on the coming goblins while the others prepared themselves to attack (or in the Hobbits' case, to defend themselves).

Legolas and Aragorn's arrows couldn't hold off the goblins forever. Soon, swords clashed between the Fellowship and the goblins. Or in Hermione's case, her spells were shot.

"_Reducto_! _Impedimenta_! _Protego_! _Reducto_! _Stupefy_! _Reducto_! _Reducto_! _Protego_! _Sectumsempra_!" rains of spells fell on the goblins. Right now, she didn't even notice where and how the other members were faring. Everyone was fighting their own goblins.

"_Reducto_!" she shouted before she turned around to see a goblin with his hands raised above him. Hermione's eyes widened as the thought _I should've picked a sword_ crossed her mind. If she was holding a sword, she could parry, but she wasn't holding one. She braced herself to dealt with the blow, but it never came. The goblin stood still, choking. That was when Hermione realised an arrow was protruding from its chest. She stepped aside as the goblin fell forward. In a glance, she could see the feather of the arrow and recognised it as Legolas'. She smirked. He was deadly effective with his bow.

Hermione felt triumphant when she realised that there were only a few goblins left in the chamber, but it only lasted for a minute. A goblin came in dragging the cave troll into the chamber with a chain, followed by another wave of goblins. Hermione was a pristine girl. Everyone in Hogwarts knew that. But right now, she cursed profusely in her mind.

* * *

Legolas fought with his bow and arrows. He stabbed the goblin with his arrows, knocked them out with his bow, and punctured them. Like the others, he mostly couldn't keep track of what happened with the others. Everyone was facing their own goblins. But then a flash of light caught his attention. Hermione. Who else could it be?

A goblin tried to attack him while he was looking at the woman. Big mistake. He ended up being stabbed with an arrow. He looked back at the woman. She was throwing spells in a rapid succession. Most of the goblins she shot were blown up. Legolas smiled as he battled more goblins. She was deadly effective with her wand.

The next time he looked at the woman, his eyes widened. A goblin was going to attack her from behind. He quickly nocked an arrow and shot. He was so angry at the time. The amount of strength he used when he shot the arrow shocked even himself. With that distance, his arrows didn't only hit the back of the goblin, it went until it was half way protruding from the goblin's chest. Although he didn't get to see the goblin's front, he could guess it by looking at how deep his arrow went into the goblin's wound.

Legolas' attention was quickly taken by the goblins who were attacking him again. Some time later he didn't pull another arrow from his quiver, but his one of his long knife instead. He slashed some orcs who were stupid enough to attack him.

Legolas thought the Fellowship was winning, and soon they could get out of the chamber and then out of Moria, but his hope was taken down when a goblin entered with the mentioned cave troll in tow and another legion of goblins. Legolas wasted no time. He put his knife back to its sheath and pulled out another arrow from his quiver before he shot the troll. The problem was that it didn't have that much effect. The troll's skin was too thick.

He went back to battling orcs and hoped the Valar would bless them to get out of this place safely.

* * *

Sam couldn't help but to feel scared when he saw the troll dragged into the chamber. He had been managing just fine so far. Mainly because Master Gandalf protected them, and most of the goblins find themselves to firstly be fought by the warriors of their groups: Strider, Boromir, Legolas, Miss Hermione, Gimli, and Master Gandalf. They were all deadly with their weapons. Most of the goblins were dead before they reached the Hobbits. And they were winning, it seemed. Sam thanked Eru for that. But then the troll came into the picture along with another bunch of those nasty goblins.

Legolas shot an arrow to the troll, but it was ineffective. The troll's skin must be much thicker than the hairy skin of a Hobbit's feet. And that was saying a lot.

The troll then looked around the room, probably looking for something fresh to eat. Sam still remembered the stories Mr Bilbo used to tell him about his adventures and his encounter with the trolls. But maybe these cave trolls didn't like to eat fresh meat. They seemed different from the trolls Mr Bilbo described in his stories. For once, Mr Bilbo didn't say that trolls carried big maces around. Sam felt dread as the troll set its gaze on him. True to his prediction, the troll instantly walked towards Sam and lifted his mace. Not looking for fresh meat then, just for killing.

Sam moved quickly for a Hobbit his size, and escape the troll's attack by running between the troll's legs. But when Sam looked back, the troll had also turned around, and was lifting his foot, going to step on Sam. _Squash us into jelly. _Mr Bilbo's words rang in Sam's head. Sam's eyes widened at the big possibility of death in front of his eyes, and he rejoiced when the troll was pulled back by the chain. Sam looked behind the troll to see Strider and Boromir pulling the chains around the troll's neck. He was really grateful for them.

But his feeling turned to dread again as he watched Boromir being thrown to a wall. He didn't move for a second, and a goblin used this chance to attack Boromir. By the time he opened his eyes and turned around, he was too late to defend himself. A dagger suddenly flew and pierced the goblin. Sam looked to where the dagger seemed to come from and saw Strider. Sam released the breath he didn't even realise he was holding. His rescuers were safe, he thought as he watched his two saviours exchanged gestures of understanding and gratitude.

Then Sam realised that the battle was not over. He searched for his sword, but he couldn't find it. He scolded himself for losing the sword in a time like this as he grabbed his frying pan. He lifted his pan just in time to hit a goblin right on the face. That would teach him.

Sam kept waving his frying pan here and there, hitting more goblin, knocking them out. He got more and more confident of himself as more and more goblins were knocked out by his unconventional weapon. "I think I'm getting the hang of this," he said to no one exactly.

* * *

Gimli jumped back on the tomb of Balin and roared after he watched the troll being pulled away from Sam. He didn't want to admit it, but he had had a soft spot for Hobbits ever since his father told him the story of his adventure with this Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. They were decent folks, these Hobbits. Strong in their own way, and pleasant to get to know. Unlike those arrogant Elves or grim Men, Hobbits were humble and they knew how to have some fun. So when he saw the troll attacking one of the Hobbits, combined with his anger at the time for the death of his kin in Moria, he got really furious.

Just as he intended, the troll looked at him. Gimli used his chance to throw one of his throwing axes at the troll, but his axe was just as effective as the Elf's arrows. It only succeded to make the troll more angry and started to attack him. He swung his giant mace and Gimli jumped off the tomb just in time to avoid the blow. Because of the blow, Balin's tomb was destroyed. _That's it_. That was the last straw. This troll had desecrated his cousin's tomb. Big mistake. Whatever happened, this troll must die.

Gimli ducked another blow and backed away. The troll's mace hit some goblins instead. Gimli got an idea. He kept ducking and backing away while the troll swung his mace here and there, trying to hit the cunning Dwarf. Gimli inwardly smirked as his plan worked. More and more goblins fell in the hand of the troll as he ducked more attack and finally fell on his back.

He turned around to make it easier for him to stand up as dread filled his heart. The troll would hit him this way. But then, he heard the sound of arrows whizzing and the troll groaning. The Pointy-Eared Elvish Princeling was not so useless afterall. After he managed to stand up, he didn't pay attention to the troll anymore, because more goblins were coming his way. He could only hope that Mahal blessed one of the Fellowship's weapons to kill the troll. Preferably his axe, but at this point, all he cared about was surviving and the troll dead.

* * *

Legolas' heart was torn between the happiness and satisfaction of saving Gimli's life with his arrows and the horror he felt when the troll turned his attention to himself instead because of that. He slashed some goblins with his knife as he waited for the troll to attack. Thankfully, he managed to get rid of the goblins in time to see the troll whipping its chains at him. He stepped aside to avoid the deadly blow and after a few more dodging, the troll made its mistake. The chain was strapped to a column. Legolas stepped on the chain. He had had enough of chain-whipping.

He used the chain as a bridge between the place he stood on and the troll's arm, and he didn't stop at the troll's arm. He ran to stand on the troll's shoulders, and kept his balance. After he could find his balance, he sheathed his knife, pulled an arrow from his quiver, nocked his arrow, and aimed down on the top of the troll's head.

He released the arrow.

The troll wailed loudly and shook his head to get rid of the pain, to no avail. Legolas' arrow was buried too deeply into his skin. Legolas tried to keep his balance and triumphantly jumped off its shoulders. His thriumphant feeling was struck down when he saw the troll stopped trashing and focused itself on something else that had just stepped out of their hiding behind a big column. He couldn't see it, but he knew what it was after. The Hobbits. Frodo, Merry, and Pippin. "No," he whispered. He ran to help them, but was quickly found himself battling more and more goblins. It appeared that there were still more just outside those doors.

_I Melain berio i Pheriain_. (May the Valar protect the Hobbits.)

* * *

Frodo hated violence. To be honest, he still prefered the warm hearth of his hole and the peace of Shire to these kind of adventures. But if something kept him going on this journey, it was his conscience. He knew what would happen if he ever failed this quest. Darkness would fall upon Middle Earth, and no country would evade it, including the Shire. He loved the Shire and he would not let the Shire fell into darkness.

That was the reason why he kept standing at his most bravest with Sting unsheathed in his hand. Merry and Pippin were standing in front of him, doing every move Boromir had been teaching them to slay a goblin. They refused to step aside and let Frodo helped them, they said it was because it was really important that Frodo stayed alive. But Frodo knew better it was because they knew he didn't like violence.

Merry and Pippin managed to take down the goblin, and they started to look for a better place to hide. Their hiding place was just as good as the middle of the room, now that someone had found them hiding there. They had just stepped out of their hiding behind the column and they stopped, because they had just realised that the troll was the first one to notice them and it was coming for them now.

_Out of the frying pan, into the fire._

A phrase he once heard coming from the mouth of his dear old Bilbo flashed in his mind.

The troll reached them in just a few seconds, and it had its mace raised high, ready to struck them down. With a cry, they moved as quick as they could to hide. Frodo went to hide behind the column nearest to him. Just after he reached his hiding place, he looked back to see that his cousins went the opposite direction to hide in another column, but the troll chose to pursue him instead.

He didn't have time to ponder his cousins' survival. He quickly shielded himself from the view of the troll. He pressed his back to the column. A hundred strings of thoughts ran in his mind, all at once in panic.

He didn't want to die.

He still wanted to come home to the Shire.

At least his cousins survived.

Would he survive?

How would he survive?

He could still hear the troll.

Could the troll see him?

Although his brain was in chaos, he tried to keep himself as calm as he could. He could hear the troll moving, searching for him. It knew Frodo was hiding behind the column. Frodo used his instinct and hearing to move around the column, hiding from the troll until he was at the opposite side of the column. The troll hadn't seen him, and it sounded like it had gone, thinking he was not hiding there in the first place. Frodo exhaled in relief.

But a loud groan coming right next to him shocked him. He was wrong. The troll was not gone, and it had found him. Frodo tried to run, but the troll pushed him to a corner. He looked around, trying to find anything that could help him, but he didn't see any. His sword, Sting, had fallen a few feet from him, and he couldn't take it without getting nearer to the troll.

The troll knew when he had its enemy cornered, and in triumph held out his hand to grab Frodo's legs. Luckily, Frodo's mind was agile. Even though he was being dragged by the troll, he still looked around to find things that could help him. At one point, Sting was within his arm's reach and he quickly grabbed it. Next, he saw the column he once use to hide. He tried to slow the troll's drag by holding on to the column. It wouldn't last long, though. The troll still tried to pulled him, and Frodo knew, his weak arms couldn't hold on to the column forever. He must cry for help, and Aragorn's name was the first to flash in his mind.

"Aragorn! Aragorn!" he cried.

Hearing his cry, the troll must have realised that it must be quicker before its prey got some help. It pulled stronger and Frodo's arms were forced to let go of the column. He was now out in the open. The troll lifted his mace with his other arm, and Frodo knew he had to act quickly. He swung Sting towards the troll's hand.

And it stung the troll indeed.

The troll pulled his hand because of the pain and Frodo used the chance to crawl back. At this time, Aragorn finally came with a spear in his hand. He stabbed the troll, but just like Gimli's axe, and Legolas' arrow before it, the spear didn't do much. It only angered the troll even more than it already was. Frodo could only watch as the troll hit Aragorn with its hand, throwing him away, and pulled the spear off its body. The next thing he knew, he felt pain. A great pain in his chest. And he couldn't think of anything else. He could hear his name being called, but his mind just refused to identify to whom the voice belonged to.

Finally, all he could see was white, and then black.

* * *

Hermione didn't have a chance to battle the troll, at all. She was too busy blowing up more and more goblins who came in from the doors. _Reducto_ seemed to be her favourite spell this time, along with _Protego_. _Reducto_ seemed to be effective in killing the goblins, while most other spells, like Harry's favourite spell, _Expelliarmus_, _Impedimenta_, and _Stupefy_, could not kill those goblins. She considered using the Killing Curse, since it was not restricted in Middle Earth, but the curse required a great amount of hate, and she didn't think she was capable of such hate. She often used _Sectumsempra_ too, but she prefered _Reducto_, because _Sectumsempra_ was considered a dark spell. It just didn't feel right to use the spell.

She suddenly stopped her rain of spells as her eyes caught on a scene.

And it felt like time had freezed.

Hermione was in the state of shock. She could see it all, the troll stabbed Frodo with the spear right into his chest, and then his face went pale. And she couldn't do anything about it. In her mind, her shock swiftly turned into anger. She was angry to the troll that stabbed Frodo, to the goblins who stood in everyone's way to save Frodo, and to herself who had failed protecting Frodo, the most important person in this quest.

As she watched the troll being attacked by Merry and Pippin, her anger slowly turned into hate. The troll had killed Frodo and attacked the people dear to her. The fact that she had almost been killed by a troll when she was eleven only fuelled the hate even more. This troll would not take down any more of the people she loved.

Without even thinking to stop herself, she pointed her wand at the troll and shout, loud and clear, "_Avada Kedavra_!"

Her green jet of light didn't miss, and the curse did its job. The troll died.

When the goblins saw the troll just dropped dead after being hit by Hermione's curse, the goblins fled the room. They truly were cowardice creatures. They must have ran away because they were scared and they would only feel more confident if they were in large number. They must have ran back to their friends outside.

If Hermione was unfazed when she killed the troll rather coldblooded earlier, now, after seeing the enemies fled the room and her conscience had reawaken, she had a breakdown. She had just used an Unforgivable! Was she really capable of such hate? Was she turning into a dark person? Her knees finally gave away as tears ran down on her face.

"Hermione!" she heard someone mumbled in worry, and then she felt a pair of hands around her. And then, she felt safe.

* * *

"Oh, no," Aragorn mumbled as he knelt next to Frodo. He had failed. Frodo had died. He had failed in protecting Frodo. And with the death of the Ringbearer, the hope of completing the quest died. It was all his fault. If only he was stronger, he might be able to pierce the heart of the troll, killing it in an instance and preventing this from happening. Or if only he was quicker. Or if only he had not stabbed the troll with the spear in the first place. If only he had just pulled Frodo out of harm's way. This would not happen if he had.

He turned Frodo's body, who was facing down at the time, and was shocked when Frodo suddenly groaned. "He's alive," Sam announced to the whole Fellowship in gladness. No one was surprised to hear the happiness in his voice when he announced it. Everyone in the Fellowship knew how Sam loved Frodo so much, like a big brother loved his little brother. Which was a little ironic, knowing that Frodo was older than Sam.

No one could imagine how relieved Aragorn was at the time, but at the same time, how sceptical he felt. Do not get him wrong, he was really glad that Frodo still lived. But he knew how deadly a spear wound was, and Frodo was not stabbed by a man, but a troll, which power was much greater than a man.

"I'm alright. I'm not hurt," Aragorn heard Frodo said to the whole Fellowship.

"You should be dead. That spear would have skewered a wild boar," Aragorn voiced his disbelief.

"I think there's more to this Hobbit than meets the eye," Gandalf said from behind Aragorn.

Aragorn watched as Frodo opened his vest, revealing the mithril shirt hidden behind it. It must be the shirt Thorin gave Bilbo. So that was where the shirt went after it was given to Bilbo. Aragorn was glad. His heart felt so much lighter, knowing Frodo wore the shirt.

"Mithril," Gimli mumbled in awe before he continued by saying, "You are full of surprises, Master Baggins."

Suddenly, Boromir was heard calling Hermione's name, and that was when everyone realised the state of the witch. Unsurprisingly for Aragorn, Legolas was the first to run to her. He knelt behind the witch and held her close as she cried. Aragorn didn't know what the problem was, but she seemed so sad... So broken.

"I used the most unforgivable curse," she finally divulged her problem to the Fellowship in tears.

"Sshhh... It's alright, you used it to save the others," Legolas said to her while he rocked her back and forth.

"But it's unforgivable. It's a dark curse," she persisted.

"You did the right thing. The troll is dead because of you. You saved us. Shh..."

A sudden loud wail reminded the whole Fellowship that the battle was not over yet. Even Hermione stopped crying because of that.

"Come on, we have to get out of here," Aragorn heard Legolas softly said to Hermione while at the same time, Gandalf commanded the whole Fellowship, "To the Bridge of Khazad-dûm!"

Everyone followed Gandalf's command without question. What was there to question? It was obvious that there was no other thing they could do.

They ran out of the room as quick as they could, but they were soon surrounded. Goblins were coming from every direction. There were even those who came from the ceiling of the hall. It was like a nightmare. They were there, standing in a circle facing outward, the Hobbits were in the centre of the circle. Outside the circle, stood hundreds, no, thousands of goblins, ready to slaughter them. The goblins eyed them hungrily. Aragorn was not sure if they were really hungry or they were just hungry for the kill.

A loud screech was suddenly heard from one of the end of the hallways. And from there, they could see orange light, as if there was fire in there. Upon seeing the sight, the goblins stopped and fled. This made Aragorn feel bad. This was really wrong. Thousands of goblins did not just ran away. Whatever was coming from that door must be really terrible if it could scare the goblins just like that.

"What is this new devilry?" he heard Boromir asked Gandalf.

At the same time, Aragorn was suddenly reminded of a tale he heard when he was young. A tale that originated from this very place. Moria. The tale of Durin's Bane**[1]**.

_A balrog_, he realised at the same time Gandalf answered, "A balrog."

"A demon of the ancient world. This foe is beyond any of you," he explained before he said urgently, "Run."

And run they did.

* * *

**[1] About Durin's Bane. I have heard multiple times about Durin's Bane, but was never really sure what it was. I found references to it in Appendix A part III in my the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King copy and one more in Chapter 5, Book Two, the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings. From those references, I concluded that it was the balrog. I think that is the most possible and logical conclusion, but I could be wrong. It could be some kind of unsaid curse, or it could just refer to the deaths of Durin's heirs in Moria. As of now, I am still researching it. If any of you know of this matter better, please inform me. Thanks. :D**

* * *

**A/N: Phew. I am not gonna describe anymore battle. Ever. Again. But wait. There were more of these battles in the Lord of the Rings, right? Let's see. There were the battle at Parth Galen, the battle of Helm's Deep, the battle on the fields of Pelennor, and the battle at Cormallen. And I haven't entailed the battle at Isengard (the one involving Ents), and the one at Osgiliath. Blast. Well, I just have to endure and hope that those battles are going to be easier to describe than this one battle in the Chamber of Records.**


	11. Chapter 11 Battle in Moria (2)

**Disclaimer: If you have read my 'Disclaimer' ramblings from chapter 1 to chapter 10, you would know what I do not own: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, yada yada yada. :D**

* * *

**A/N: I **_**CANNOT BELIEVE**_** I FORGOT TO WRITE 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLIN MORGAN' ON MY PREVIOUS NOTE IN CHAPTER 10! It was first uploaded on January 1st, 2013, which was Colin's 27th birthday. I revised it the next day for line breaks, and I **_**still**_** forgot to add it. I'm such an oaf! So, once again, after punctually saying it through various medias I have access to (namely Twitter, Facebook, and my BBM status), I wish to say, "HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO THE TALENTED COLIN MORGAN. I wish you a great career, a happy life, and may God always bless you."**

**Anyway, I have googled some more, and finally found more references on Durin's Bane. Turned out my conclusion is true. It is the Balrog. I have to thank Thrae Elddim for the comment. It helped in assuring me of the result of my research. If anyone is interested in reading my research conclusions, I posted them in my profile. :D**

**So, here's you chapter 11 and the second part of the Battle in the Mines of Moria.**

* * *

**Chapter 11: The Bridge of Khazad-dûm**

Hermione ran along with the whole Fellowship. In her mind, Legolas' words rang loudly and repeatedly. _It's a black chasm. _Her already troubled mind couldn't escape the endless cycle of the devastating words. _Black chasm. Black chasm. Black. Chasm._ No wonder everyone but Gimli and the Hobbits were discouraged to take the route of Moria.

"Quickly!" Gandalf's rich voice was heard aloud. The tone of urgency and panic was clear in it. He stopped on an archway to usher everyone through it. Hermione was the last to go. As she ran past him, she nodded at him to thank him which wasn't met with any reply. Hermione understood, though. It was a dire situation.

Another roar was heard from the hallway, and Hermione froze. She looked back to see Gandalf also looking back with fear clear in his face. It was getting near, both Gandalf and Hermione realised that. They quickly ran to catch up with the whole Fellowship, although they needed not run for long. The whole Fellowship stopped on the brink of a part of stairs. Apparently, the next part had collapsed down, maybe a long time ago. Hermione dread what would happen if she hadn't look forward and hadn't managed to stop running down the stairs. Just a little nudge would send the Hobbits tumbling down, pushing Gimli, Legolas, and Boromir off the stairs, and to the deep of the fiery chasm.

Suddenly, she noticed that Gandalf was running out of breath, and was leaning on a wall. "Gandalf," she called as she checked on the old wizard. From the corner of her eyes, Aragorn looked back to where Gandalf leant on a wall and ran up the stairs to the old wizard out of concern.

"Lead them on, Aragorn!" Gandalf said with an expression that clearly told him, 'do not mind me'. He then continued as he gazed upon a lone, seemingly frail bridge ahead. "The bridge is near," he said.

Aragorn seemed ready to run and lead the others, but suddenly, a loud roar was heard. "It's near," Hermione said. At the same time, Aragorn launched past Gandalf to face the balrog. Well, he tried to. "Do as I say!" the old man pushed Aragorn back. "Swords are no more use here!" he continued as he looked sternly at the ranger. He, himself already started to walk as he said that.

"And don't you dare to think to face that balrog with your magic," he scolded Hermione when he caught the brunette's movement that indicated her intention to run back to the balrog. "Now, fly!" he shouted to the whole Fellowship as everyone started to move again, an instruction everyone was inclined to follow.

"Why?" she asked Gandalf as she ran down flights of stairs, following where the others ran. "If swords are useless against it, why don't we try my magic?"

"Hermione, the balrog is beyond your skills. I know it. Like me, it is a Maia. A Maia that was corrupted and twisted by the darkness of Morgoth," he left his explanation at that, and then she didn't even care to ask anymore. It was tiring enough to run the seemingly endless flights of stairs. Talking while running would only make them more breathless.

* * *

They kept running, running, and running. Every other thoughts except that had been banished form everyone's minds. Legolas was at the front of the line now. It wasn't hard for him to catch up with the others, although he was near the rear of the line when they started running. Being an Elf gave him a lot of advantages concerning these matters.

Legolas suddenly had to stop. There was another large gap in the stairs. It would be easy for him to jump across it, but will the others be able to jump? He looked back to see the others already catching up with him. He looked ahead, and decided to jump first. Someone needed to catch the others when they jumped.

As soon as he reached the other side, he looked back to the others. Gandalf was the one on the frontmost. "Gandalf," he called as he encouraged the old Maia to jump across. Without hesitation, Gandalf jumped and Legolas caught him.

As soon as Gandalf was steady on his feets, an arrow whizzed and hit the staircase. The arrow was not sharp enough to be stuck in it, but at the same time, it would still be deadly and even more painful when it did hit. Then more arrows came. Legolas quickly nocked an arrow, aimed, and shot. His aim was, of course, true. One of the goblins fell down with a screech. Legolas wrinkled his nose as an image of the repulsive creature flashed in his mind.

He kept shooting arrows after arrows, felling more and more goblins. From the corner of his eyes, he could see that most arrows didn't reach the Fellowship. Many of them fell into the deep chasm because of the lack of speed, but most of them were flicked away by an invisible force. Everytime an arrow was flicked there was a spark of blue. Legolas faintly smiled as he felt a spark of pride in his chest. Hermione was more than capable to protect the Fellowship.

Boromir took Merry and Pippin and then jumped. They arrived safely, but the momentum they caused when Boromir jumped was proved to be too strong for the old stairs. A part of the stairs, the part where they used to stand before they jumped, crumbled down, making the gap even larger that it already was.

Seeing as the assaults of arrows had declined significantly, thanks to Legolas' true aims and Hermione's protecting magic, Legolas stopped shooting and focused his mind on transporting the rest of the Fellowship to his side of stairs. Aragorn was fast. He tossed Sam, and Legolas was more than ready to catch the Hobbit. The ranger was ready to toss the Dwarf, too, but he lifted his palm to strongly refuse the ranger's offer of help. "Nobody tosses a Dwarf!" he cried before he jumped with a loud roar. Legolas was afraid that the Dwarf won't be able to reach the other side.

And he was right. Well, no, he was wrong, the Dwarf _did_ get to the other side, but he barely did so. His feet only touched the edge of the stairs, and he was struggling to keep his balance. From the way he swayed, he was losing it and he was going to fall soon. Legolas stretched his arm to grab whatever he could grab from the Dwarf, to save him from falling to the chasm. Unfortunately, the only part of the Dwarf within Legolas' arm reach was his beard.

"Not the beard!" the Dwarf exclaimed. Legolas cursed in his mind. The pride of the Dwarves is going to be the death of them. He was sure of it.

As soon as Gimli was firmly on his two feet, Legolas looked at the other side, and felt dread, because more parts of the stairs had just crumbled and the gap had widened. No human could jump that distance. And on the other side of the stairs, the wrong side, were Aragorn, his best friend, Frodo, the Ring-bearer, the essence of their quest, and Hermione, the woman who had managed to rage turmoil in his heart in the last couple of days.

* * *

Aragorn and Frodo climbed up the stairs, avoiding falling on crumbling staircases. Aragorn cursed in his mind. Hadn't Gimli seen what happened when Boromir jumped whilst carrying Merry and Pippin? Gimli might be shorter than Boromir, but it was common knowledge that Dwarves were heavier than they looked. And with all those chainmail, armour, and axes, he might weigh more than Boromir and the four hobbits combined. But then again, if he had tossed Gimli, it might get worse. Gimli might not reach the other side. As he had recounted before, the Dwarf was heavy.

When the stairs stopped crumbling, Aragorn looked at the gap. Now he couldn't jump over it. It was too wide.

"Aragorn, take my hand!" he heard a feminine voice commanded behind him. He looked back and was suddenly reminded to what happened the last time she asked him to take her hand. Yes, that would work, but...

"No. Frodo first."

"I can take you both at the same time," she assured him. Her hand was still outstretched to him and she started to walk towards Frodo. "You are not going to like this, Frodo," she said as she grabbed Frodo's hand and Aragorn took hers. Aragorn braced himself for the unpleasant sensation. Surprisingly, it was not as unpleasant as the first time. It was maybe because he had been expecting it this time.

Right after he stood on the other side, a loud roar was once again heard from the archway, this time followed by a fiery orange light that they could associate instantly to the ray of fire. The ceiling then began to collapse and the earth quaked for a while.

"Go!" he shouted. The others quickly obeyed him and ran other flights of stairs.

"Over the bridge!" Gandalf instructed as soon as they reached a plain. "Fly!"

Aragorn fled on his heels, like the others, but a loud noise, similar to the sound of a troll stomping its feet, only louder, made him look back for a moment. And that was all he needed to spur his feet. What he saw was a large creature, burning with fire. Its horns were like those of a bull's, and it also burned. Its eyes were white, because of the heat of the light. It was shadow and fire in their most terrible form.

Finally, they reached the bridge. The bridge was small, and unlike the stairs, it was narrow. It was only one man wide. The Fellowship ran over the bridge quickly, Aragorn taking the lead. As soon as he reached the other side, he looked back to make sure the others can reach safety. Boromir ran past him, and then the Hobbits. From where he was standing, he could make out that Hermione, Gimli, and Legolas were already running on the bridge, and Gandalf was only just going to reach it.

He led the Hobbits to ran up the last flight of stairs. "Gandalf!" he suddenly heard Frodo shouted behind him. This prompted him to look back at the old man, who stopped running before he even reached the middle of the bridge and was already facing the balrog. Aragorn's eyes widened as he realised what Gandalf had been planning all along. He intended to fight the balrog himself. In his mind, Aragorn scolded himself. Maia against Maia. Of course.

* * *

"NO!" Hermione cried as she heard Gandalf shouted at the balrog, with every word, it was clear that he wanted to fight this balrog all by himself. She tried to run back to help the old man, but she felt a pair of hands encircled her figure and started to pull her away from the bridge. In her mind, she remembered the death of Albus Dumbledore. She wasn't there, and to be honest, she sometimes blamed herself for it. If only she was there, maybe she could help. Or even if she couldn't, at least she would be free of the guilt of not being there at the time. Now, she had the chance to help Gandalf. She didn't want to just let him die. She struggled against the owners of the hands, but he was too strong. Soon, they were far enough from the bridge, and she stopped struggling as she realised her efforts were futile. All she could do was to watch.

"I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor!" the old man's voice rang loudly. The stone he once placed on the tip of his staff glowed brightly. In the meanwhile, the balrog stood to its full height and prepared his flaming sword.

"The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udûn!"

Hermione's heart clenched in pain as she watched the balrog lifted its sword of fire and then swiped down, intending to strike down the wizard. "No," Hermione found herself muttered over and over again as she watched the sword stroke like in slow motion.

She gasped loudly as the sword came into impact with the bubble of protection that had formed around Gandalf and sparks flew everywhere. When the balrog lifted its arm again and Hermione could see Gandalf still in one piece on the bridge, she released the breath she had been holding. A small hope lit in her heart. Gandalf just might survive this.

"Go back to the Shadow," Gandalf commanded the balrog. The balrog seemed to hesitate for a millionth of second, before it stepped forward and brandished its whip. Like its sword, its whip was made of fire.

Seeing the balrog's refusal to retreat, Gandalf slowly lifted both his staff and his sword up. Hermione had a feeling that this would be his last attempt on stopping the balrog from chasing them. He was going to release all his power now.

"YOU..." he shouted with all his voice.

"SHALL NOT..." his staff and his sword met above his head.

"PASS!" Gandalf thrust his staff and sword on the bridge.

And look, as the balrog advanced, the part of the bridge where it once stood collapsed, making him fall into the depth of the abyss.

Hermione finally allowed herself to smile in relief. Gandalf had won. He had defeated the balrog. Everything would be fine.

Or not. As Gandalf turned his back, the balrog lashed his whip, and it caught Gandalf's ankle. Inevitably, the old wizard was pulled down. Hermione's smile faded. She could hear Frodo shouted Gandalf's name and struggled to reach the old wizard. She could also hear someone else tried to stop Frodo. But she could only watch. She could only numbly watched as the old wizard struggled to get on the bridge again, to no avail. Finally, he stopped struggling, and Hermione could see the look in his eyes. It was the one of resignation.

"Fly you fools!" he finally said and let go of the bridge, and that's when Hermione broke out of her frozen state.

"No!" she struggled to break free of the arms that were still circling around her. She could hear the owner of the arms whispered soothing words to her ears, although she couldn't make out any of those words. She wasn't sure if it was just because she was too busy screaming, or if he spoke in another language. And she didn't care. She kept struggling to reach the end of the bridge. Finally, she stopped struggling and she let herself be dragged through stairs, while arrows rained on them again.

Once all of them were out of the mines, everyone scattered around. Even the one who had been dragging her out of the mines let go of her. Hermione had a breakdown. Gandalf had been a mentor to her during her stay in Rivendell and her journey with the Fellowship. To lose him like this was really painful. For her, it was as painful as when she robbed her parents of their memories of her. As painful as when she heard the news about Harry's death.

She let her knees gave away and kneeled down as tears kept streaming down her face. Again, someone hold her. She didn't see who it was, but Hermione recognised him as the one who dragged her out of the mines. As Hermione relaxed to his hold, she silently cried. He almost survived. He was winning. The balrog had fallen. But in the end, Gandalf still fell. Hermione bitterly snorted. How cruel. Gandalf's almost winning was like a tease. A tease meant to break the heart of the whole Fellowship even more when he finally fell.

"Legolas, get them up," she heard Aragorn said. The one who hold her reluctantly brought her up to her feet. "Stand strong," she heard him say, and she recognised his voice as Legolas'.

She looked around. Legolas was walking towards Sam. Merry was holding his cousin, Pippin, who was crying, while he himself was staring off into nothing. Boromir was keeping Gimli from running back inside the mines. Sam was crying, alone. Frodo was nowhere to be seen. Aragorn stood tall, trying to be the strong foundation that the Fellowship had lost when Gandalf fell, although the grief was still clear in his eyes.

"Give them a moment, for pity's sake!" Boromir snapped at Aragorn's request.

"By nightfall these hills will be swarming with orcs." came the answer without a pause. "We must reach the woods of Lothlórien."

Hermione walked to Merry and Pippin with Aragorn's voice prompting Legolas and Boromir to help him in the background.

"Hey, be strong," she softly said, attracting Merry and Pippin's attention as she got nearer to them. "Come on, Gandalf had sacrificed himself for us, don't let him go in vain," she said while she helped Merry, and then Pippin, to stand up.

"Miss Hermione, why didn't you do something?" Pippin's grievous voice asked her between his sobs, and Hermione was silent. She didn't say anything. She didn't have the answer to his question.

"Pip, there was nothing else she could do," Merry said to his cousin. Pippin nodded to his cousin's words, but something still nagged in her heart. Pippin was right. She should have done something. Restrained or not, numbed or not, at the time, she should have done something.

* * *

**A/N: Now what it this? First, she was scared because of finally using the Killing Curse, and now she was feeling guilty over Gandalf's death (even though we all know, that it was never her fault). And we still haven't seen the solution to Legolas' problem, right? Well, I promise you, those problem will be solved soon. Really soon.**

**Somehow I think this short chapter is rather crappy. I tried my best but I just couldn't grasp what was missing. Maybe the Legolas/Hermione parts? Or maybe the details? Or maybe it's just the length? Hm...**

**Anyway, about translations, there weren't many words in this chapter (not including Nanduhirion in my A/N). In fact, besides the name of creatures and places, there were only two other words: Anor and Udûn. Anor, is the Sindarin word for the sun, so the flame of Anor means the flame of the sun. Udûn is not listed in my dictionaries, unfortunately. So I cannot give you the exact translation, but if I had to guess, based on my instinct, which has more than 60 percent chance of being wrong, I think it means hell, to put it bluntly. I'm off to research some more! My, my, how I love researching Tolkien's works. :D**

**Well, it's 1.30 a.m. already, and I need some sleep. Bye.**

**Rwanna.**

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**P.S.:**

**February 10, 2013.**

**Okay, you can kill me now. I have literally, unintentionally, temporarily "abandoned" my main story, "A Witch's Quest of Mount Doom", in the last two-three weeks. Not permanent, mind you. My head just blanked in the middle of writing a point of chapter 12, and believe me, I tried to do other parts of the chapter too, the one which conversation was 100% in Sindarin, but my work just stuck after my failed third attempt to translate it. Blame it on my laptop and my own stupidity. I should've just switched to MS Word, and not insisted working with Notepad on the translation. But no, I just have to be an idiot. I've realised it now. ****The flood in Jakarta a few weeks back also didn't help me at all with this project. Check my profile for my grumbling on this phenomena if you need more explanation.**

**Not only those are the problem, working on ten stories at once is not cool at all. Not cool. I actually have mentioned in the first chapter I posted after the hiatus that since I am working on many stories at once, the rate of update for this story this term break will be less often than the last term break. Only, at the time I mentioned it, I was only working on maybe 6 stories at most? 7? Now, I have about 8 fanfictions stories in progress in my drive, and another two or three undeveloped story concepts that I have typed down. At this point, I am willing to let anyone interested to adopt these undeveloped concepts. Two of these concepts were Merlin fanfictions, and the last one is a planned crossover between the Walking Dead, Supernatural, Merlin, and Harry Potter (if possible). Just contact me if you want it, and I'll send it to you via PM.**

**I am really sorry for those who have been waiting for the still-not-coming update, but due to the reasons I mentioned, I am suspending this work for incubation, hopefully for only a few more weeks. I'm still working on it, and once again, I said, I am not abandoning this story. Ever. In the mean time, while I am thinking of a way to write the next part of chapter 12, I am posting another fanfiction under the category: TV Shows Merlin. It is titled "Destiny is but one path of many", and rated M for rape scene. Not graphic (at least I hope it's not graphic enough), but my morality still think I should rate it M. This story is one of the stories responsible for the delayed development of this story. I chose this one to be posted among my other works, because it is the one with the most complete concept and the most developed plots. Not to mention that in my opinion, this one is the one with the least flaws compared to my other unpublished works. Doesn't mean this one is flawless.**

**In conclusion, I am sorry for the postpone.**

**Rwanna.**


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